#APA Speaking of Psychology

[bananasofthorns]

America, Thankk You for the Mental Health Crises, but I Need You to Stop: An Analysis of Will Wood's "Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Stop"

I wrote this for my midterm in my Rhythm and Revolutions: Music and Social Change class, which examines the relationship between music/musicians and social change or social movements. It's a really fun class and this was a very fun essay to write. Please enjoy!

America is in a mental health crisis. Although there is no one thing to point at as the direct cause, there are two polarized viewpoints on mental illness that have exacerbated the issue into the ongoing crisis it is today. On one side of the divide are those who ignore mental illness and see it as a shameful weakness; on the other side are those obsessed with pop psychology and the pathologization of all aspects of human existence. In his song “Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave” from The Normal Album, Will Wood confronts both viewpoints in a parody of dialectical behavioral therapy.

The title of the song refers to psychologist Marsha Linehan, the creator of dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT). She hoped to treat patients struggling with therapy that focused on changing their thoughts and behaviors by instead teaching them to recognize how their different systems of thought influence each other and how to balance these reactions. At its core, DBT aims to synthesize contrasting views (Swales, 2009). Additionally, the American Psychological Association’s (APA) dictionary of psychology defines “dialectic[s]” as “any investigation of the truth of ideas through juxtaposition of opposing or contradictory opinions” (APA, 2018a). These concepts serve as the framework for “Marsha, Thankk You for the Dialectics, but I Need You to Leave.”

In an interview with New Jersey Stage, Wood explains why he based his song around dialectic theory: “I think the major directions people come from in the mental health discourse are both deeply flawed but mostly well-intended.” The two directions he focuses on in “Marsha, Thankk You” are of those who dismiss mental illness and those who define themselves by it. He also says, “The level of vitriol with which people identify with their often-extreme perspectives on the subject prevent the conversation from making serious progress.” In this song, he expresses his frustrations with the current conversations surrounding mental health, but he also hopes that the song will bring comfort to those struggling with their own uncertainty about mental illness, as well as push them to examine the ways they feel and speak about the topic (“Will Wood Releases,” 2020). He does so by contrasting the two above perspectives in a way that satirizes them both, highlighting how absurd he thinks both extreme sides of the conversation around mental illness are.

Throughout most of “Marsha, Thankk You,” Wood speaks to the listener as if they are someone who defines themself by their mental illness, whether or not that diagnosis is true or self-assigned. In doing so, he addresses issues that plague modern psychology and society, such as over-medicating and the increasing prevalence of pop psychology which pathologizes all aspects of being alive.

One problem with how mental illness is currently treated is the over-prescription of psychiatric drugs. In an interview with psychologist Lawrence Rubin, psychiatrist Allen Frances explains that the expanded diagnosis criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), has led to over-diagnosis and over-prescribing. “Drug companies have become experts in selling the ill to peddle the pill,” he tells Rubin, meaning that these companies take advantage of the too-broad definitions in the DSM-5 to profit off of people who do not actually need medication but believe they do, based on an unnecessary diagnosis. (Rubin & Frances, 2018) “How many milligrams of you are still left in there?” Wood asks the listener in the song’s chorus (Wood, 2020), implying that their true self is being replaced by who they are when taking drugs that they rely on but don’t need.

He expands on his implied criticism of this attitude in an interview with Kill the Music. This perspective, he says, is pushing the belief that mental illness is inherently unfixable and is telling those who are mentally ill that, “[their] only hope is spending the rest of your inherently sick existence worshiping the chemical technology the heavens sent down to us through AstraZeneca,” a global pharmaceutical company. Wood finds this hopeless, over-reliant perspective to be unproductive. (Mohler, 2020)

He adds that these people also find it necessary to “fanatically identify with pop psychology platitudes,” (Mohler, 2020), which is the main issue he speaks against in “Marsha, Thankk You.” The APA dictionary of psychology defines “popular psychology” as “psychological knowledge as understood by members of the general public, which may be oversimplified, misinterpreted, and out of date” (APA, 2018b). Pop psychology has always existed, but it gained traction in modern times through self-help books and magazines. Recent years have seen the rise of mental health influencers–people who spread mental health knowledge and advice on social media platforms–which has led to even more pop psychology “facts” becoming general knowledge. As Wood pointed out in the interview above, people begin to rely on or obsess over the tips and tricks in pop psychology videos and self-help books. This leads to them defining their lives by a mental illness or psychological condition they may not even have.

Throughout the song, Wood’s lyrics point out how absurd this way of living is; he criticizes the lifestyle in the hope that people will realize the ridiculousness of what they’re doing and reassess how they think about themselves. “You could sing a pretty malady like a black canary, but a crow don’t know the smell of carbon monoxide,” he tells the listener in the first verse (Wood, 2020). “A canary in a coal mine” is an expression that indicates an early warning of danger, based on how coal miners used canaries to detect carbon monoxide. Wood likens the listener to a crow mimicking the real thing: it can make the noise, but it cannot actually do the job, and the listener can fake the symptoms of a mental illness but that doesn’t mean they actually have it.

The bridge of “Marsha, Thankk You” especially draws attention to pop psychology’s tendency to pathologize normal aspects of life. In this part of the song, Wood takes the stance he has been criticizing, singing as if he is the one obsessing over a perceived symptom or unnecessary diagnosis. “Doctor, what’s my prognosis if the studies show that / Disease is in the eye of the beholder?” he asks in the first two lines of the bridge (Wood, 2020). “Disease is in the eye of the beholder” is a play on the saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” which means that everyone has their own standard of what is beautiful; in these lines, Wood says that pop psychologists redefine mental illness to be whatever they think fits them best, whether that is true or not. 

Throughout the rest of the bridge, he satirizes this attitude, ending the section by saying, “We’ll all sing when the bell curve rings in lyrics symptomatic of the way we think / If our harmonies don’t sync, we can change our voices / A chorus on condition of our diagnosis” (Wood, 2020). The bell curve refers to the visualization of statistical average, also known as “normal distribution” in statistics; this line ties the song into the themes of normality and conformity that Wood explores in The Normal Album. He is saying that all these people who buy into pop psychology beliefs do so because they want to feel “normal,” and pop psychology gives them ways to treat symptoms or actions that they see as “abnormal” (whether they are or not). When he adds, “If our harmonies don’t sync, we can change our voices / A chorus on condition of our diagnosis” (Wood, 2020), he means that these people change how they act or see themselves based on what the most recent pop psychologist (a self-help blogger, a mental health influencer, etc.) says their “symptoms” (pathologized human behavior) mean. They will do anything to fit into an acceptable box, even if that label doesn’t truly apply to them or doesn’t actually mean what they’ve been told it means.

All of “Marsha, Thankk You,” but especially the bridge, forces the listeners to examine how they think about their own mental health and whether or not they are susceptible to over-relying on pop psychology. However, the song is meant to be a critical comparison between two perspectives, so over-pathologizing is not the only attitude Wood discusses; he also comments on the opposite side of the spectrum, in which people dismiss mental illness entirely.

Attitudes towards mental health have changed drastically over time. The pop psychology trend is mainly prevalent in younger generations; in contrast, older generations are more likely to ignore or deride mental illness. According to Arielle Kanitz, director of dialectical behavioral therapy at FHE Health, the Silent Generation, Baby Boomer generation, and Generation X all carry a heavy stigma against mental health. For the former two generations, it was assumed that anyone being treated for mental illness was insane, and treatment for those outside that label was unheard of; for the latter generation, they “suck[ed] it up and deal[t] with it” (Robb-Dover, 2023). Even today, when conversations regarding mental health are much more normalized and acceptable, those attitudes and beliefs remain. 

Wood uses the choruses of “Marsha, Thankk You” to mock that perspective of mental illness. In the first chorus, he puts himself in the older generations’ shoes and sings, “Back in my day we didn’t need no feel-good pills and no psychiatrists / No, we just drank ourselves to death / And god damn it, we liked it” (Wood, 2020). The phrase “back in my day” is associated with reminiscing on the past, especially in a fond way, but oftentimes the past was not as good as it is remembered. Wood, speaking as the older generation, derides therapy and pharmaceutical drugs and in the same phrase lauds self-medication through alcohol. This contrast emphasizes the absurdity of dismissing valid treatments for mental illness in favor of ignorance and harmful coping mechanisms.

In the next two choruses of the song, Wood reiterates this criticism by increasing the disparity between the speaker’s judgement of modern mental health treatment and their acceptance of harmful ways to deal with the issue. In the second chorus, he replaces the second line of the quoted lyrics above with “No, we just bled out in our baths.” By following that statement with “And god damn it, we liked it,” (Wood, 2020), he points out how foolish it is to dismiss mental health treatment, because back in the “good old days” when that treatment wasn’t normalized, people killed themselves when they were unable to receive help. 

Finally, in the third and last chorus, he sings, “I said, back in the days of lobotomies and shock therapy and mad scientists,” (Wood, 2020) in reference to some of the common ways to treat mental illness that were prevalent in the late 1800s and early-mid 1900s. Not only were these methods later decided to be harmful and unethical, they were also mainly used on patients with more stigmatized mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder; if a patient was receiving these treatments, it was because they needed to be “fixed.” As a result, people who grew up when these treatments were more common still hold the attitude that mental illness is something bad or shameful, even when modern treatments (the “feel-good pills” and therapy that Wood mentions) are proven to be beneficial. This attitude means that these people refuse to reassess their own mental wellbeing, even when they are hurting because of it. Wood finds this attitude equally as unproductive and harmful as over-relying on pop psychology.

“Marsha, Thankk You” is meant to parody a dialectical behavioral therapy session in how it seeks to juxtapose two contrasting perspectives on mental illness. This becomes especially evident in the song’s outro, where Wood speaks as the listener’s therapist, forcing them to face harsh truths about themself. Regarding their identity, in relation to mental illness, he tells them, “It’s not the way that you were raised, or what the advertisements say / Not what you pay for, what you pray for, what you want, or what you say” (Wood, 2020). These statements address both perspectives that he has criticized throughout the song: the listener’s beliefs about mental illness should not solely be formed by the stigma they grew up with, nor by the self-help “guides” trying to sell them something. Their personal mental state, and any diagnoses they may need, are not reliant on what they buy into, what they hope for, or what they tell others (or themself) that they have. These lyrics summarize Wood’s goal with this song, which was–as he told New Jersey Stage–to get people to examine their attitudes towards mental illness and, hopefully, get them to become more comfortable with themselves.

He continues with the lyrics, “And I see your tendency to redefine disease by what you need / And I’m afraid I can’t prescribe the diagnosis that you seek” (Wood, 2020). This once again frames the listener as someone on the pop psychology side of the conversation, over-reliant on a diagnosis to tell them who they are. Wood, in the position of the listener’s therapist, calls out this behavior and refuses to enable it. He tells the listener, “and something tells me / You prefer to be sitting there flipping through those old issues of People,” (Wood, 2020), implying that the listener cares more about the pop psychology anecdotes in the magazine than the real help their therapist is trying to give them. This final observation drives home Wood’s criticism of this type of person.

The last line of the song is spoken; Wood states, “Well that’s our time, see you next week” (Wood, 2020), effectively ending the dialectical behavioral therapy session and the conversation between the two perspectives he contrasted in the song.

Actual DBT aims to find a balance between conflicting thought processes or ideas. However, in this case, Wood thinks it would be more beneficial to get rid of these attitudes entirely. The conversation between pop psychologists and mental illness deniers is “getting us nowhere,” he says in an interview with Kill the Music. “It’s a game of tug of war with the teams a mile apart and no objective judge. We don’t need to meet in the middle, we need to give up the game” (Mohler, 2020). Although he used dialectic theory as the framework for “Marsha, Thankk You,” he does not actually believe that there is any way for these perspectives to reconcile. Neither are helping America’s mental health crisis, and in fact it may be more beneficial to society if both sides did not exist at all in the extremes that they do.

[witchesofvaliant]

A Cautionary Tale

Normally, we're not one to be deeply involved in online drama of any sort, but we don't tend to enjoy seeing injustice, ignorance, and harm come to others and stand by without saying a word if we can help it. I also don't want hate towards the other party involved, and I don't want anyone to target anyone. This isn't a war, this is a disclaimer and word of caution for anyone who is unaware of this situation.

The context:

I joined a discord server that actually originated through a tumblr blog here @atheneum-of-you (She goes by Poppy and will be referred to as this or as "the owner" the rest of the way) and while I hoped for the best, what I found was a fairly dangerous community in terms of helpol communities that can be found online, and after simply communicating my discontent with the owner over her passive aggressive attitude, and after trying to communicate logic in a mess of chaos, I was publicly made fun of and kicked, with the staff and friends of staff continuously and publicly joking about their actions.

Honestly? I'm not upset at that, I am however concerned about the issues that this incident exposed along with multiple others that we will get to along the rest of this post.

1: Religious Misguidance & Cult Practice

Now the primary issue of all here, so your time isn't wasted by reading this VERY long post.. The owner and the cult mentality surrounding the server. Poppy has established herself as the resident priestess under Hermes, and creating an environment that has shown time and again, that if you are in good graces with her and in agreement with all she says, then all is good, your life and your religious practice and spirit is well and your wellbeing with your deities is in good hands. She claims to be able to speak to the gods to tell others what the gods think of them, and others in the server are ridiculed, ignored, warned, or just outright banned, when disagreeing or simply trying to educate her and others with another perspective on a topic concerning practice and belief. Any ideas offered on protection, cleansing, or even just other ways to practice in having a relationship to the gods are met with ridicule and ignorance, with many members outright refusing to believe or listen to suggestions of cleansing stating that they are not "witches" and do not perform "witchcraft", funny enough, many religions support cleansing as an actual practice (holy water is one example of this). All actions taken by the majority of members, tend to be to crowd around the owner and to act nearly with praise toward her, approving of her every word, and hanging on in desperation for her readings (as just one example). But here, I'd just be going around in circles at this point, so here's an excerpt from this site on the psychology of cults: "Let’s start with a definition of “cult” from the APA Dictionary of Psychology as a baseline:  “n. 1. a religious or quasi-religious group characterized by unusual or atypical beliefs, seclusion from the outside world, and an authoritarian structure. Cults tend to be highly cohesive, well organized, secretive, and hostile to nonmembers.” " - This does coincide with the religious nature of the server and the lack of focus on education on outside topics, instead being reliant on Poppy's word and only her word. "Most cults share some common traits:  

They’re usually led by a charismatic individual whom the members worship without question. 

Cult members often live together in their own dedicated community. " - This does agree with it being led by Poppy, who constantly has shown a kind and good-natured intent, with deep-seated passive aggressiveness when given any form of genuine objection.

"The Psychology of Cults: How They Lure People In and Take Control 

Cults recruit new members anywhere you might expect to meet new people: social media, discussion groups, community clubs, events, and the like. These are typically nonthreatening, public situations that would not cause anyone to be suspicious. Cult recruiters get to know as much as they can about people and identify individuals who may be receptive to meeting a group of the recruiter’s friends at dinner or another social event. Though the chosen targets are generally unaware, these seemingly innocent gestures are the first steps to being drawn into a cult.   Obvious enough, but this speaks to the unknowing people that go into this seeking a kind community within helpol, getting to know the person happens automatically within the server, especially with introductions and so on.

Targeting Vulnerable Prey 

Receptive people are those who are looking to escape something—such as an unhappy life situation—and to belong, be accepted, and find meaning. Cults prey upon the vulnerable among us, such as teenage runaways, drug addicts, abuse survivors, those who have lost someone close to them through death or a breakup, those suffering from insecurity or mental health issues, or anyone who feels disconnected from society.  I myself had done readings for several people within the server, all of them in desperate need of guidance, and many admitting to needing their deities and even Poppy's help as they don't know how to live without either one of the two or both. And again, many in this server are definitely minors as well.

Drawing in Recruits 

Once the potential recruit is in the presence of cult members, typically still oblivious to the group’s agenda, they are showered with love and validation. This tactic, referred to as “love bombing,” makes the recruit believe they’ve found what they’re looking for and more likely to return for group activities in the future. This is critical in the early stages of cult indoctrination since the recruit is not yet under their influence and needs to feel secure.  The love bombing is done primarily by Poppy and the constant drilling that the deities are all telling her that you are definitely on the right path and need to keep going and keep devoting, as well as the seeming constant extreme kindness from Poppy (saying literally they are a "found family"), and after that, there's the many posts of documentation from Poppy literally named "lessons" on how you should practice that you are encouraged to read through (As well as other documentation written throughout the server on how to practice also written by her).

Taking Control  

As they indoctrinate new members, many cults separate them from their families, friends, and jobs, slowly remaking their identities to suit the group. They may force recruits to surrender their money, belongings, and bodies to the cult’s leader and other members. Sometimes they compel new members to marry people they just met. They may use punishment, deprivation, and other tactics to wear them down. These efforts, which sometimes include threats, make new members dependent on and afraid to leave the group. Fully indoctrinated members often engage in behavior they never would’ve considered in their former lives. " Members are encouraged to commit FULLY to the deities and give over their lives to them, there is a culture already established where the members are speaking constantly as if every single little thing in their life is to be devoted to the gods, and as if the gods are responsible for every little aspect of their life. There is a constant "joke" of how you should not push the owner or she'll ban, and I was quite literally told "You should watch how you act with our priestess", which I would say is evidence enough to prove this fact as well.

2: Racism

So, for the record, I am a large mix of cultures and backgrounds just within my immediate family, and within the last two generations of my family. I primarily identify with being Latino from Puerto Rico, but I am also of Indigenous background through my Puerto Rican ancestry (Taino tribe), I have Spaniard in me, Trinidadian and Jamaican, as well as British, and that is what I know of and am closest to. With that said, I go to the BIPOC channel they have in this server, and see several Latinos from various Latin countries, talking about how people from the US, especially Latinos from the US just don't understand how things work outside of the US and aside from making some other crude jokes on this, they start calling us gringos, which for context, can be used as a derogatory word/slur in many uses, meaning someone involved in white American culture or a white person (especially from the US), it was inappropriate, and after bringing it to the owner's attention, she proceeds to ban the word, but still not bring any justice to the people using it after they continued to defend using a slur and using it AS a slur, and she seemed to have needed my help in explaining to her, because she was not a part of the "Latino community" why that word is negative. I would think seeing it being used in negative context would provide the common sense to ban use, but she and other mods did admit not even moderating that chat and many others, so I digress.

3: Minors and Adult Content

This server is not 18+, now that's fine, but when doing so, especially with it being run by a supposed adult, that adult must have measures in place for minors to be safe in an online space, at least when that is a primary concern for you. The server has roles that only go down to 15 y/o, and if the server is restricted to that, there is no way for mods to genuinely tell such a thing as many minors lie about their age, and Discord allows ages as young as 13. Now, again, if you are putting measures in place for them, that's fine, but the NSFW/Adult channel is not truly safeguarded. All one needs to do is have a role for it and boom you're in! Of course, I have seen some "wonderful" adult content casually spoken about outside of that channel anyway, so it isn't as if it truly matters then. Sex-related things, and especially smut fiction is joked and SHOWN casually in several areas of the server.

4: Godspousal

I'm jumping straight into this one because this links with the previous point made in some ways. The channel focused around this is also only blocked by an adult age role, and that's a real shame, as there is no other protection for minors to just go in and start seeing casual talk about godspousal relationships with their "dad". What does that mean? Well, they'll call any close relationship with a deity a godspousal at this point. Familial, sibling-like, romantic, sexual, it doesn't matter, they can all be godspousal relationships. You decide if that sounds screwed up or not, but I don't agree with casual talk of incest.

5: Inappropriate Treatment for LGBT+ & Neurodivergent

Speaking of having used slurs, there are separate chats for neurodivergent and LGBT+ people there, let's start with the neurodivergent channel, where people start using "neurospicy" to joke about neurodivergent terms and to use it jokingly, now at this point, another member had informed people, and myself as I hadn't been aware of this either, that the term above was originally developed as a slur/infantilization towards neurodivergent people, mentioning also that the term "weeb" was also created as a slur towards the Japanese, and the response of all in the chat was to blatantly joke and continue using the words and proceed to ignore the member who was informing others about the issue. Moving on to the newly created LGBT+ channel, after calling it "skittles", they proceed to introduce themselves like they're in an AA group, with their name, and then LGBT+ orientation, you decide if that's a little uncomfortable to act like it's all a game and a trend, saying things like "princess is my gender" by the owner herself, and another member using "transwomen" as a gender because they just feel like it, and to each their own, but as a plural system, and someone not against endogenic systems, that's not what was being talked about, instead this was along the vibe of the latest trend found on tumblr and reddit.

6: Priesthood & A Cycle Created

Now, in this, there are multiple pieces to speak of that are cause for concern. Of course, this is a community centered around a religious community, so this would be the largest part to hold concern over, and while godspousal and cult practice was spoken of above, I want to speak of another major focus of this server: priesthood. The server was created by someone who claims they are a priestess to Hermes, and seeks to motivate many others, including a minor who is completely new to this situation into priesthood for the gods. There are many instances where people with little understanding of what they're even doing, little experience even understanding the gods, and little awareness of who they are even following with barely any time spent following these deities. While I dare not judge others' beliefs, practices, or experience, the true concern is that this is a cycle within the server to motivate or believe you can become a priest/priestess to a deity in no time, and being "training" at which point you must be absolutely devoted, and that the owner, Poppy, must be approving of your relation to the deity (and thus has the power to tell you that you can be a priest/priestess to that deity), but if a reading from her says differently, then you MUST rethink your entire life decisions (But that much was already mentioned in the first section). This cycle of believed intense devotion and living life FOR the deities creates an unhealthy fixation in many who understand no other way to worship or even live, and devote their entire life, health, body, and mind to deities, crediting everything to their deities, at this point, turning what is a non-organized religion into an organized religion reminiscent of strict Christian practices.

Conclusion

With all that said, I genuinely write this wishing that the members of the server will open their minds, think deeply and reflect on the people they are affecting with this. If you want to have a fun community to enjoy each others' company, then make that, but don't turn it into what is a religious community server that looks as if it is meant to teach and preach certain beliefs, even contradicting a supposed want for freedom and openness to all beliefs and religions/practices. I dearly wish the best for those in that server/community in the end, and only seek to educate and as the title says, provide a cautionary tale, especially so the younger audiences involved understand that there is much more out there that is safer and healthier for them than this environment and the ideas that they have been led to believe are healthy for them. All the best to anyone who sees this. <3

[lunebris]

Thoughts of Uther Pendragon

Hello hello. It's pretty obvious that hatred towards Uther’s character shades most of the fandom’s opinions. But it happens that I find his character pretty intriguing, mostly because the show doesn’t tell much about his past or things from his perspective which gives much room for interpretation.

So here’s another character analysis I’ve made of Uther. Take from it what you want. (In other words I’m not labeling him as ”good” or ”bad”, I’m simply inspired and wrote this analysis of a commonly not-so-popular character.)

Here are some more themes I’ve been thinking about:

Uther the warrior

Is Uther a lonely king?

Why are Uther and Arthur clashing so much?

Uther's attitude towards the old religion It's a relatively lengthy post so it's under 'keep reading'

1. Uther the warrior

Medieval times were times filled with wars. As far as I have understood, when the show begins, it’s the longest peaceful times for ages.

Backtracking a little… It’s not implied in the show but generally in the Arthurian legends Uther was trained to be a warrior since birth. He wasn’t a blood heir but he was given the position by another king which created a domino-effect of conflicts and more wars.

The way I see Uther in the show, he is still a warrior (regardless of his background the show doesn’t tell us). He never learned how to act or what to be when it’s finally peace. A king in wartime has a clear purpose: fight, conquer, and protect. But in peace? A ruler has to shift from being a warrior to being a diplomat, lawmaker, and administrator. They’re all roles that Uther doesn’t seem particularly suited for. For someone who’s spent decades defining himself through war and conquest, suddenly ruling a kingdom that no longer needs a warrior could make him feel directionless.

This scene between Uther and Nimueh pops up in my mind:

UTHER Don't ever speak of her in that way. She was my heart, my soul. And you took her from me.

NIMUEH She died giving birth to your son. It was not my choice. That is the law of magic. To create a life, there had to be a death. The balance of the world had to be repaid.

UTHER You knew it would kill her.

NIMUEH No, you're wrong. If I had foreseen her death, and the terrible retribution you would seek... I would never have granted your wish.

UTHER I wish you hadn't.

NIMUEH You wish you didn't have a son? Well, your wish will come true tomorrow.

UTHER I will not let you take him.

NIMUEH I have watched so many people I love die at your hands, Uther Pendragon. Now it is your turn.

”I wish you hadn’t.” The way I see it is that Uther regrets the mess he has made – not Ygraine’s death or having a son. He is lost, lonely and lives with the fact that he isn’t the best father to Arthur (and Morgana).

”You wish you didn’t have a son?” Btw, it’s Nimueh speculating. Uther replies, ”I will not let you take him.” He hates the stressfull situation he has created and put himself into – but he does not hate Arthur.

2. Is Uther a lonely king?

Uther still lives like a warrior, a war commander, because he doesn’t know what else to be. This could explain why he keeps such a tight grip on power: he might subconsciously provoke conflict (through harsh laws, executions, and persecution of magic users) because it keeps him in his psychological comfort zone. He’s paranoid, he rarely trusts anyone and he believes that peaceful times are only temporary. (”It’s peaceful – what’s wrong?” Nowadays we know it’s a sign of being unhealthily in a constant survival mode.)

I have seen some discussions about Arthur being a lonely prince and Merlin being one of the first friends (if not the first) with whom he can just be himself and have a genuine connection with. I think it’s the same with Uther. He has some other noble friends but as far as I’ve understood, Gaius is the only one he shares the more sensitive stuff with. Gaius is his trusted advisor.

Imagine being Uther – not daring to trust anyone, ruling a kingdom you fear might fall apart any moment, raising a future king some people apparently want to kill – and just… being lonely all the time. It’s a poisonous cycle, and it’s hard to find a way out of there. Being lonely yet not trusting anyone. Wanting to protect a future king and the kingdom, having to endure the hatred people have towards you. He’s not the type to give up. I think he believes that people hating him are a part of the deal, of being a king. He thinks you can’t please everyone and is more or less fine with it.

3. Why are Uther and Arthur clashing so much?

Arthur is growing up in a more stable kingdom and sees peace as something worth maintaining. He believes that a king should be loved, not feared.

Uther, on the other hand, sees peace as fragile, temporary, and believes that a king must always be ready for war. His training of Arthur is based on this: he wants Arthur to be a warrior first, a ruler second. But Uther doesn't necessarily know how to be a ruler. This is why they clash so much. Uther believes that Camelot is constantly under some threat - he's the warrior protecting his kingdom, eliminating enemies or possible enemies for the safety of Camelot's people. Whereas Arthur lives in the moment, treasures the peaceful times and wants to focus on the well being of Camelot's residents. He doesn't understand why the king should be feared. He wants a connection with his subordinates.

But in Uther's mind being loved means being weak. Love requires trust and trust is easily taken advantage of.

If Uther fought for his own throne or had to suppress challenges to his rule, then he knows how dangerous it is to be seen as weak. Even though the show portrays him as a rightful king (if I remember correctly), he still might have faced opposition early on (which typically happened with new kings during their era), and it shapes his paranoia about Arthur's future. This could explain his strictness with Arthur. He’s not just preparing him to rule but to defend his claim against inevitable rivals.

Even though Arthur is Uther’s son and an obvious heir, that doesn’t mean everyone will accept him unquestioningly. Nobles, rival families, and even former allies could see a young, inexperienced king as an opportunity to seize power (which, again, was typical in their era). Uther’s an elder man, he has first hand experience of these things. Uther’s harsh training of Arthur (forcing him into battles, making him prove himself constantly) isn’t just about strength for strength’s sake. It’s about making sure no one dares to challenge him when the time comes. And, the rivals aren’t even imaginary threats: the times someone tries to get rid of Arthur in the show… Phew.

It might seem heartless of Uther to not let Arthur go on quests to save servants etc, but honestly Uther’s actually being pretty smart since he doesn’t want to risk the life of Camelot’s future king. Uther is getting old and if his heir dies it opens possibilities for enemies to attack and try to take down Uther too. To take Camelot.

If you want to beat a group, an army or even a kingdom, you aim for the leader. Sometimes when kings fight in wars with their men, it’s quite easy to think that they're being cowards if they flee the scene when the battles get worse. But really, they’re being smart (or acting smart, who knows), because if the king is defeated, the whole kingdom is defeated. Nobody wants that because typically the new leader wants to shape the conquered area into their liking, which means that the people might lose their identity and are forced to submit to a new ruler's will.

Uther training Arthur sends mixed messages too. He wants Arthur to take part in tournaments and other competitions and quests to prove his strength, and these aren't always risk-free either. I think that Uther accepts these battles because he is there to oversee most of these happenings, he could step in if he considered it necessary. To protect his son. Also, these tournaments and quests carry a pretty huge reputation: people know and talk about these things. If Arthur survives or wins something, everyone will know about it. It builds his reputation as a strong heir, whereas going on a quest to save a servant etc. is not that grand of an event. Besides, I think Uther fears that enemies might take advantage of Arthur's soft heart. If he goes through that much trouble to save "just a servant", how easy it would be to manipulate Arthur into something more sinister?

Lastly, taking in notice that Uther doesn’t seem to trust anyone fully, who would he choose to be his follower had Arthur died?

4. Uther’s attitude towards the old religion

In the show, prophecies and destiny play a huge role in shaping events. A lot of the conflict comes from people trying to either fulfill or prevent prophecies and, to be honest, it doesn’t work that well even if the participants truly have good intentions.

If we look at it from Uther’s perspective, the old religion and magic users aren’t just dangerous because they have power – it's because they believe in forces like fate and destiny that they actively try to enforce. They manipulate people based on prophecies or visions. Uther might see them as dangerous not just because of their abilities, but because they shape events in unpredictable ways. Even when people (for example Merlin) try to prevent a prophecy, they often just make things worse.

Uther seems to be a person who does what he wants. He makes his own path based on his own reasoning – he doesn’t trust these visions or prophesies. Maybe because he knows how tricky they can be? Has he learnt something the hard way himself?

* * *

What do you all think? Would Uther have been less extreme if magic users weren’t constantly trying to reshape destiny? Would he have been a better king and a father had he found a way to drop the I-trust-no-one-and-rule-this-kingdom-alone thought?

[ladymaigrey]

DD:BA S1 Ep 8

Finally! An episode that had it's arm around my neck and kept me in a chokehold until the final glorious whumpy moment!

(And did I miss seeing Matt gasping with his face scrunched up in pain? Oh yesssss I did. Raise your hand if you are with me!)

As poor and nonsensical as the parallels that bookended Ep 6 appeared to be, the switches between Fisk/Vanessa and Matt/Heather here were perfect. One couple coming together through honesty and confession, culminating in a beautiful, if somewhat murderous, act of harmonious decision-making: Fisk giving Vanessa a choice on what to do with Adam and Vanessa choosing the artistic route to show her loyalty to Fisk... aaah, just like renewing their vows again after marital strife.

And the other couple... has Matt in it. The man who chronically and catastrophically is unable to be honest to himself about DD, let alone to anyone else. And who really should've had very strong sense of deja vu because his conversation with Heather about the difference between Muse and DD was an exact duplicate of his conversation with Karen in S2 about the difference between Frank and DD. And, if doing the same thing again and again while expecting a different outcome is a cliche (if wrong) definition of insanity, then Matt... needs a therapist, stat. Just... not the one he is fucking.

Instead, what he does is to use the word "trauma" which obviously entered his lexicon through Heather's influence, to put her on the defensive before he skedaddled out the door to go make a mess at Murdock and McDuffy.

(And poor Kirsty. If only Foggy was there to tell her, that, nah, this is typical Matt Murdock behavior when half his life is bursting out of the other half while he keeps mum about it all. Drink some whiskey. It won't help but you'll be cushioned when it all goes spectacularly to shit.)

OK, moving on.

Oh Josie! The Madam purveyor of alcohol-steeped eels to homeboy lawyers. Ain't nothing getting past her sharp eyes! I love her appearance. Please let Josie's be reopened in the last episode, with Matt and Karen back in it after having received news that Foggy is alive after all!

And then the scene with Dex. The brutality, the sarcasm, the pure punitive violence that Matt took straight from the office and unloaded into Dex's nose. (And how desperate must have Dex been to turn to Matt as his get-out-of-jail ticket?!)

Ah, the ball! What a wonderful throwback to the wedding that Fisk and Vanessa never had. And the charity event which served Vanessa the poison champagne. This was supposed to be their reception, their coming out as the King and Queen of Crime. And Vanessa was not to be put in a trite wedding dress (let alone a mourning outfit) - off-the-shoulder provocation in red silk.

And Matt, straining to break all pretences of civility to confront Fisk, once again throwing psych words at Heather as a diversion. The man now appears to know enough of psychology lingo to create dangerous word salads to confuse people with. Not sure the underlying concepts themselves stuck though.

Oh speaking of nonsense psychology. Or in this case, speaking of the nonsense psychologist. Ahem. Excuse me but WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS HEATHER DOING ACCEPTING A PARTY INVITATION FROM HER CURRENT CLIENTS?!? HAS SHE NOT READ THE APA CODE OF ETHICS?? This was *not necessary* for her to attend and had a strong potential to affect the relationship with her clients! Between that, her shoddy pop-psych take on vigilantes and masks, and her seriously questionable decision making in taking a fan as one of her clients (a decision that nearly got her killed), she should be stripped of her therapist license.

Back to Matt, who can dominantly dance his way in and out of danger, while catching whispers and rifle reload actions out of thin air. Because, yet again it seems, Fisks' enfant terrible arrived to wreck their family affair. Truly, they are a warning tale against adopting psychopathic acolytes. However this was grace for Matt saving him from doing something even more suicidal - like confronting Fisk in the open and causing an embarrassment for him and Vanessa, which would've had Fisk reaching for the nearest car door. Instead, Matt did the "good man" hero saving thing and ended up as a bloody and tasty mess on the floor.

How will that play out, I wonder, with Fisk now in his debt? Can Fisk even see reality sufficiently to recognise that? His perspective has certainly taken a turn around the delusion corner land, what with the "poor criminals being put out of business" sob story he was spinning an episode or two ago.

The entire ball scene held so many tension threads and you knew that things were going to go sideways, but there was a whole handful of options of exactly which flavour of shit storm was going to hit. This episode recalled for me some of the best of the Netflix narrative and character handling (as well as cinematography and the lighting). I believe that ep 8 and 9 are all Dario Scardapane's work, so we are now done with the half-rotted mess that the previous writers left, which had to be stitched together with fresh meat to create this disjointed season. And this leaves me feeling really good about season 2.

Can't wait. But want even more bloody Matt, please and thank you!

[nerdygaymormon]

American Psychological Association Affirms Evidence-Based Care for Transgender, Nonbinary, and Gender Diverse Adults and Children

The American Psychological Association (APA), the leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States, has adopted what it calls a “groundbreaking” policy in support of evidence-based care for transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse children, adolescents, and adults.

The policy (PDF) was approved by APA’s governing Council of Representatives at its meeting on February 24, with a vote of 153-9 with one abstention. The resolution directly counters the claim that there is no scientific consensus on gender-affirming care.

APA President Cynthia de las Fuentes, speaking of the new policy resolution, states, “It sends a clear message that state bans on gender-affirming care disregard the comprehensive body of medical and psychological research supporting the positive impact of such treatments in alleviating psychological distress and improving overall well-being for transgender, gender diverse and nonbinary individuals throughout their lives.”

The policy includes several findings and resolutions, such as:

Gender affirming medical care is medically necessary - “the APA underscores the necessity for access to comprehensive, gender-affirming healthcare for transgender, gender-diverse, and nonbinary children, adolescents, and adults”

The organization opposes bans on gender affirming care - “the APA opposes state bans on gender-affirming care, which are contrary to the principles of evidence-based healthcare, human rights, and social justice, and which should be reconsidered in favor of policies that prioritize the well-being and autonomy of transgender, gender-diverse, and nonbinary individuals”

Being trans is not “caused” by autism or post-traumatic stress - “legislative efforts to restrict access to care have involved the dissemination of misleading and unfounded narratives (e.g., mischaracterizing gender dysphoria as a manifestation of traumatic stress or neurodivergence, and equating affirming care for transgender, gender-diverse, and nonbinary youth with child abuse), creating a distorted perception of the psychological and medical support necessary for these youth and creating a hostile environment that adversely affects their mental health and wellbeing.”

False information on trans care needs to be combatted - “APA supports efforts to address and rectify the dissemination of false information to ensure the well-being and dignity of transgender, gender-diverse, and nonbinary individuals”

Discrimination, non-affirmation, and rejection risks suicide - “gender-based bias and mistreatment (e.g., discrimination, violence, non-affirmation, or rejection in response to gender diversity) pose significant harm, including risk of suicide, to the well-being of children, adolescents, adults, and families.”

The APA is only one of many professional medical, legal, and child service organizations that have issued formal statements in support of LGBTQ families and individuals based on scientific evidence. 

[sebiruhariini]

Psychological Safety

Pekan lalu, aku ikut zoom pelatihan leader forum. Diisi oleh bapak Rizal Jalil, MBA. Honesty, the content is veryy insightfulll. Istilah yang baru aku ketahui, tapi sebetulnya secara definisi dan bentuk sedikit paham arahnya. Catatan ini aku tinggalkan sebagai pengingat bagi diriku yang masih banyak luput ini.

Apa itu psychological safety?

Adalah perasaan aman dan nyaman saat ada di sebuah organisasi/kelompok.

Apa ciri psychological safety dalam kelompok kita?

Keterbukaan orang-orang di dalamnya untuk speak up

Tidak ada ketakutan akan dipermalukan

Berani mengubah keadaan status quo. (Btw karyawan gen Z sekarang itu adalah anak muda yang rerata punya semangat idealisme. Maka, ajak mereka nabrak tembok status quo!!)

Kenapa sih penting adanya psychological safety ini?

In fact riset menunjukkan, hanya 25% SDM yang merasa safety dalam sebuah perusahaan.

Penelitian di perusahaan Google menunjukkan tim yang paling baik performancenya adalah tim yang nyaman dalam bekerja, respect each others, dan punya tujuan yang jelas, sehingga timbul TRUST dan karyawan menghadirkan hatinya dalam bekerja.

Apa yang pimpinan bisa lakukan?

Normalize vulnerability (ex/mengakui kesalahan)

Menstimulus pertanyaan kritis

Respon yang dihadirkan atas dasar curiosity, bukan judgment

Invest in team rituals that foster trust

Ternyata, Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft, yang mengedepankan kolaborasi dan empatitive culture berhasil melonjakkan saham mereka sampai 10 kali lipat dari sebelumnya. Employee satisfaction 83/100. WOWWW!! What he did? 1. Hearing more at the beginning 1-2 bulan pertama, doi banyak mendengarkan karyawan di level paling bawahhhh. What are their hopes? What's the evaluation? What can we change? 2. Mengadakan townhall meeting Sarana mengenalkan diri bahwa leader is not superman. Just ordinary people. He said he never having ambition being CEO. 3. High level cadence Banyak berempati dengan karyawan. "How was ur weekend?"

Kalau kata bu Retno (ex Menlu), perusahaan/organisasi itu is about people conflict, people to people chemistry. Seorang leader jangan hanya mau menang ego sendiri atau ego timnya sendiri. Harus ada seni negosiasi.

How if our leader doesn't act like he supposed to do? Being anti criticized?

Jika leader kita tak bisa menyelesaikan permasalahan, maka raise the upper leader & buat whistle blowing (cara lapor kalau ada yang ngga beres) yang baik. Mau siapapun kita gunakan komunikasi 360, ke atas, ke bawah, dan ke horizontal.

"Sistem yang baik akan menjadi kebaikan bagi leaders di semua zaman."

How if we are at the middle layer?

Pastikan kita punya full support ke bawah. Sehingga mereka bisa jadi backing up kita ke atasan/divisi lain. Secara, business is about people to people connect, not about performance. Soft power itu membangkitkan TRUST. Ketika kita diserang, divisi bawah kita akan berjuang habis-habisan untuk kita.

At the end, psychological safety bukan dibangun dari organisasi. Tapi dari individu-individu pribadi. Kita pribadi yang harus provide safety itu terlebih dahulu. Kita terhadap keluarga, kita terhadap teman, kita terhadap perusahaan/organisasi.

[shrinkrants]

1. Why Social & Healthcare Workers Are Essential to the Fight Against Authoritarianism

They Are Trusted Voices.

Let’s be real—people don’t trust politicians. They don’t trust corporations. They barely trust the media. But they do trust their doctors, their nurses, their social workers, and their mental health providers.

That means when these workers speak out against authoritarianism, against disinformation, against the attacks on democracy and public services, people listen. They hold a kind of moral authority that few other constituencies can claim.

We need to mobilize that trust, turning social and healthcare workers into one of the strongest pro-democracy forces in the country.

They See the Harm Firsthand.

Social workers, nurses, and case managers aren’t theorizing about what austerity looks like. They live it every day. They see patients denied care. They witness the harm of criminalization. They know what happens when public services get cut, privatized, and turned into profit-making machines.

They are witnesses to the destruction that authoritarianism and corporate greed cause, and that makes them some of the most powerful truth-tellers we have.

They Can Disrupt Systems from Within.

Here’s the thing—these workers aren’t powerless. When they organize, they can disrupt systems from within.

Nurses can strike against the gutting of public healthcare.

Social workers can resist policies that criminalize the poor, trans kids, and immigrants.

Doctors can refuse to be complicit in state repression.

Their labor, their licenses, their collective power—all of it can be weaponized against the authoritarian machine.

They Are an Organizing Base That Cannot Be Ignored.

Millions of people work in healthcare and social services. They vote, they organize, they have unions and professional associations with national reach. If they decide to take a stand, it shifts the balance of power in the fight for democracy.

2. How Authoritarians Are Targeting Social Services and Public Health

The far-right has known for a long time that controlling public services is key to controlling society. That’s why they’re:

Deregulating healthcare so billionaires can profit off our suffering.

Defunding social programs so only the wealthy can afford stability and the rest of us are in no position to negotiate about our wages and working conditions.

Attacking mental health services while pushing police and prisons as the only solution to social problems.

Privatizing everything from Medicaid to housing programs so they can loot public resources.

And they’re doing it while actively targeting social workers and healthcare providers for speaking out.

If we don’t organize these workers and their institutions to fight back, we’re ceding the battlefield to the forces trying to destroy democracy from the inside.

3. What Needs to Be Done?

Professional Associations Must Step Up.

Professional organizations like the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), American Psychological Association (APA), and American Medical Association (AMA) have power—but only if they use it.

We need these organizations to:

Publicly condemn authoritarian policies—whether it’s attacks on reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ protections, or public health funding.

Fight against privatization of social services, healthcare, and public health programs.

Protect their members from political retaliation.

Fund democracy defense campaigns, from voter registration to legal defense for targeted workers.

Healthcare & Social Service Unions Must Mobilize.

Unlike professional associations, unions have real leverage. They can strike, boycott, and organize mass labor actions.

Unions like SEIU, AFSCME, National Nurses United (NNU), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) need to:

Integrate pro-democracy demands into their contracts and campaigns.

Organize workplace resistance to authoritarian policies.

Strike and take direct action against healthcare austerity.

Fund worker-led democracy initiatives.

Workers Must Be Trained to Fight Back.

If we want social and healthcare workers to fight back, we need to give them the tools to do it. That means:

Building internal organizing networks inside hospitals, clinics, and social service agencies.

Creating rapid response teams to resist harmful policies in real time.

Training workers in disinformation resistance—helping them push back against right-wing propaganda in their workplaces and communities.

4. How the Rest of Us Can Support This Fight

This is not just their fight—it’s all of ours. So what do we do?

If you’re in one of these professions, start organizing your coworkers. Get involved in your union. Push your professional association to act.

If you’re outside these industries, apply pressure. Demand that social work and healthcare orgs take a stand. Create the opportunity for those who want to take action to do so by calling on them to take action.

Support healthcare and social service worker strikes. Show up on the picket lines. Donate to strike funds.

Expose corporate and billionaire influence over public services—make it clear what’s at stake.

This sector cannot afford to stay neutral.

5. Final Thoughts: This Is a Political Fight, Not Just a Policy Debate

This is not just about healthcare policy. It’s about power.

The far-right understands this. They’re targeting public services because controlling them means controlling people’s lives.

If we lose this battle, it won’t just mean worse healthcare or social services. It will mean a future where billionaires and fascists control the basic functions of society.

But here’s the good news: This is a fight we can win.

Social service and healthcare workers are not just responders to crisis—they are key to preventing crisis. If we can organize them, support them, and bring their institutions into the fight, we can turn the tide against authoritarianism.

We fight for them, they fight for all of us. Let’s get to work.

[nut-today]

Papers and journals and unlearning

____________________________________________________________

"... So, apparently, being avoidant whether it's in career, friendships, and relationships is a trauma response! ..."

Nuraga and Audy were on FaceTime, casually nerding over psychology journals. Deep dives into all kinds of knowledge with legitimate sources was their kind of new fun since two weeks ago. Initially it started when they tried library date, turned out the both of them enjoyed this kind of quality time. The only difference was that while Audy only had stars in her eyes learning psychology, Nuraga was open to anything, he liked learning in general.

Just like today, earlier, Nuraga already had his share on global agriculture development. Now it's Audy's turn, jumped in with her psychology papers she found online. She's so fired up the energy was contagious.

"... this human behavior tendency I found is crazy. You need to hear this—"

"... it explains attachment style develops as a result of a child’s early experiences with our caregiver—"

"... Listen to what this one psychologist says—"

"Kak."

At one point, Zaki—Audy's younger brother—barged into the room. He briefly interrupted their FaceTime. Came asking for money then returned with snacks for both of them, he ended up enjoying listening his sister and her maybe-boyfriend unpack attachment theory like it's a podcast.

Speaking of boyfriends—yes, Nuraga's Audy’s now. There was no grand confession, they simply talked, said they were interested in walking through life together. Somewhere along the way, their gue and saya quietly softened into aku-kamu. Calls became part of the routine. Videocall, FaceTime, they called each other when they're apart.

Just like this moment.

The reason why Nuraga and Audy were FaceTiming was because Nuraga was in Surabaya. Audy was in her parents' house. Nuraga wasn't in Surabaya for another seminar, nor for shooting another content. He was there to work on wedding designs. After what felt like forever, Nuraga had started to love sketching again. One of his colleague wanted him to draw exclusive attires for their wedding. And yes, the client was national-important VIPs, they insisted on covering all of Nuraga’s expenses just to have him come to them not the other way around.

Moments like this made Audy wonder how someone like Nuraga could fall for someone like her. Well Audy is cool, and sure she might be even more cooler in the future, but Nuraga is VIP-level cool! Sometimes seeing him felt like a different kind of extravagant. Had it was not for her cookies, Nuraga might've never gotten that serious the first time they knew each other. God’s matchmaking is chaotic sometimes.

"Dek, gimana Windy?"

"Apa seh."

When the deep discussion ended, the FaceTime stayed open. No real topic, just light chatter, Audy pulled Zaki onto the conversation as if it was family show. Audy had said it earlier, Windy—Zaki's girfriend—had messaged her, and that’s how she learned that those two were in the middle of classic teenage drama.

"Windy sampe coba chat Kakak tuh! Baik banget dia, kabarin balik gih!"

"Ya nanti."

Audy found it oddly cute seeing Zaki started dating. Zaki had always been the popular good-looking kid in school, but this was the first time he actually dated someone. Turns out all those years being handsome didn’t matter, he just needed someone who have something in common. They bonded through Manchester United. Meeting at football watch party couple of times, now there they were.

"Suka MU, Jak? Nobar di rumah gua kapan-kapan, sahabat gua ada yang suka MU juga. Kadang kalo ada pertandingan bikin nobar di depan rumah."

"Iya Bang, aku kenal pacarku kan karena ketemu di nobar rumah Bang Raga, hehe—"

"Oh iya? Waaah!!"

Zaki then going full football mode to Nuraga, geeking out over the English Premier League. Nuraga actually didn’t follow football, he didn't even pretend to enjoy it. Football bored him. He's more of a hiking boots and chasing sunrise kind of guy. But he liked the way Zaki, or Robi, or anyone of his friends lit up when they talked about it. So he stayed and listened, sometimes he could still mention a thing or two, obvious stuff, like, "MU kalah lagi nggak semalem?"

On the other side, Zaki was totally unaware Audy had secretly called Windy with her phone. Before anyone noticed, Zaki’s girlfriend had somehow joined the conversation too—silently, sneakily, happily.

"Bang Raga kan punya banyak uang, mending beli MU abistu bubarin." Zaki grumbled. "Jadi club bola kalah mulu mending jadiin club malem aja."

"Hahahaha ..."

Audy and Nuraga laughed, so did Zaki. But the moment Zaki heard a laugh he knew way too well, his smile froze. His face dropped.

"Kakak telfon Windy ya?!!?"

Windy immediately ended the call but Zaki was already stormed out of Audy's bedroom.

"Adek! Adek!!"

"Kakak mah gitu—"

"Dia sampe langsung matiin telfonnya parah banget—"

"Jangan asal telfon lah—"

"Ya kasian itu Windy! Telfon balik sana!"

"Ish!" And just like that, Zaki disappeared. No more sound. Door slammed, boy's gone.

"Haha." On the other side of the FaceTime, Nuraga chuckled.

"Hey sorry for what happened—"

"It's ok haha, funny to see." He laughed because it kind of reminded Nuraga of his younger days. Years, years ago.

But because it reminded him of the old days, suddenly his mind shifted.

Berore growth, before gentleness. The old him, stubborn, prideful, all sharp edges, convinced the world owed him an apology before he owed anyone else one.

Damn.

Nuraga went silent.

"Hey?" From the screen, Audy noticed. "Are you alright?"

Nuraga was laughing just seconds ago. Now his eyes were unfocused. His pencil—earlier carefully sketching—now suddenly scratching over the blank page in frustration.

"Hey? Hello?"

His hand stopped mid-scribble . "Hm? Y-yeah."

It took him to moments he rarely visited—too sore to miss. Something about Maya had crept back in. Actually when Audy mentioned the part about career and avoidance, Nuraga had already thought of Maya. But he just didn't like this version of him. And if Maya was here, she probably hated it even more.

"Some things remind you of her?"

Now Audy noticed it too. Goddammit.

"What is it about Maya that made you this way?" Audy asked. Not with jealousy, but with empathy. She'd been there—grieving, longing—and if she could help him unlearn some of that ache, she would.

"How do you let go of your dad for real, though?"

"Emang waktu itu ada yang triggering banget, kalau case aku." Audy sighed. "Papaku yang sekarang dan Mama menikah, aku nggak bisa kontrol itu padahal I was still clenching too hard of this happy family I've had in mind, terus satu-satunya cara ya cuma ikhlasin something that is not even there anymore."

Nuraga let out a big sigh. He was deep in his thoughts.

"Is it because your story with her? The love? Too good to be true?"

No. No. That's not the case. If anything, he and Maya used to joked about it. Pretending love was a weight to be measured, whoever could carry more would win—Spoiler: nobody did admit.

"I mean, like... seeing your brother, jadi keinget jaman dulu, mungkin jadi relapse aja. Ntar juga lupa."

"But actually aku beneran mau tau tentang Maya if you don't mind. Not because I'm trying to compare or anything, pengen tau aja. Sama kayak kamu tau dua papaku."

Hhhh.

Audy was nothing but gentle. Nuraga knew she had this way of making people feel lighter, less tensed. But Maya… opening up about her meant facing corners of himself he still flinched at.

'Maya!'

'Nuraga!'

Suddenly it all came back—the little gestures, the way him and Maya used to joke, the way they used to laugh at nothing.

"Me and Maya met in high school, kita satu SMA. We weren't really friends back then. Sometimes we met in the hallway. Very rarely we ended up walking home by coincidence." Nuraga paused himself, sorting which stories to tell. There's just too much underneath it. "I think I can only talk about Maya whenever I'm ready?"

"Whenever you're ready."

____________________________________________________________

[bagaluten-sys]

I lied, put your clothes back on. I will explain how different alters can be differently abled

(As somebody that highly assumed I couldnt possibly have alters that need mobility/ speaking aids)

With sources as always 💅

(This is the longest post we ever made, scroll to the emotional bottom part if your attention span is f*cked, read it all for some education and our experience)

TW: somatoform dissociation, trauma-induced paralysis, (selective) mutism due to trauma

Lets first look at the definition of the word "abled":

"[adjective] having a full range of physical or mental abilitys;not disabled"

Further the definition of disabled is:

"[adjective] having a physical or mental condition that limits their movements, senses or activitys"

(Oxford languages, dictionary)

Now the first things people without many touching points with disabilitys might think of amputees, people permanently in wheelchairs due to accidents or an adult that is cognitively at the level of somebody much younger.

But depending on the definition used the following things count as being disabled as well (beside physical, sensory and cognitive/developmental disabilitys):

-Neurodivergent conditions (e.g. Autism, ADHD, dyslexia, epilepsy)

-mental health conditions (depression, CPTSD, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ect)

So far more conditions qualify as disabilitys then many people realize.

(Gleichstellungskommission, verywell mind, mhamd.org, social security-SSA and more)

Now as I established thoroughly in another post: If the disorder is trauma related or environmentally influenced then its very possible (and in OSDD1/DID even common) that some alters have the disorder and others dont. Disorders like BPD, ASPD, CPTSD and so on stem from trauma. In CDD-systems there are usually alters (usually ANP's) that do not remember the trauma and therefore didnt experience what lead another alter to have the disorder. For us o ly one alter shows ASPD traits. Two of our other alters suffer severly from BPD-symptoms.

As I also said: if the disorder is based in the body or brain since birth then all alters have it, but it can present severly different in every alter.

For us, we have a non-verbal Little that shows "more" autistic traits then we do.

(sources: see post I made about that ig, I have sources there)

Now, ma people: OSDD1/ DID stems from repeated trauma in childhood. Every alter is different (at least a little) and might handle things different.

(Did.research.org, nih, clevelandclinic, psychiatry.org, literally most professionals ever)

We have alters that dont talk due to various reasons (voice dysphoria, trauma, they dont feel able to).

Where most people draw the line tho is when we say we have alters that use wheelchairs in headspace. Its a little hard to talk about it, but we struggle with walking, especially when dissociating. There have been incidents where we were not able to stand up due to loss of feeling in our legs.

Some of us (especially traumaholder) suffer so much from the abuse that we endured, that they arent able to walk anymore, and this happens in "singlets" too (trauma-induced paralysis).

Its not uncommon in DID systems. Its a form of somatoform dissociation, where severe psychological distress shows in bodily symptoms.

(DSM-5-TR (APA, 2022 ect)

To sum it up (in my words): Trauma f*cks with you. I do not have to explain how it feels to be so trauamtized you can't talk or walk. CPTSD and trauma is to take as serious as any other disorder. Yes, it can mess with your body.

DID/ OSDD stems from trauma. Trauma can disable you. Some alters can do shit, others cant. Deal with it. Cause my "more" disabled alters will never be something we're ashamed of. They have been through stuff I couldnt comprehend. They can heal. They can have their needs met, of course they can, they deserve it.

I know one shouldnt post about their trauma or their "more vulnerable" alters, but this is something we want people to understand about systems. Some of us just arent as mentally/physically abled as others. Thats a fact. DID/ OSDD-1 is a serious and complex disorder and I'm sick of it getting treated like genuine trauma survivors are playing disabled.

Now if we accidentally phrased something wrong or spread bs here, please tell us and we'll correct it, ignore the other mistakes, we're german and I dont wanna read this through again, I'm tired, byyyyeeeee

-a Host of a suspected system with too much free time

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Joan E. Greve at The Guardian:

Conservative justices appeared reluctant to overturn Tennessee’s law that prevents transgender youth from accessing some gender-affirming medical treatments, as the supreme court heard oral arguments in a case challenging the policy on Wednesday.

The plaintiffs in US v Skrmetti, which was first brought by three trans youths and their parents last year, argue that the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment because of sex-based discrimination. Elizabeth Prelogar, the US solicitor general, specifically noted that the medical treatments targeted by the Tennessee law, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, are still available to young patients for reasons other than gender-affirming care. “The law restricts medical care only when provided to induce physical effects inconsistent with birth sex,” Prelogar said Wednesday. “Someone assigned female at birth can’t receive medication to live as a male, but someone assigned male can. If you change the individual sex, it changes the result. That’s a facial sex classification – full stop – and a law like that can’t stand on bare rationality.”

But the court’s conservatives including the chief justice, John Roberts, appeared to suggest that this particular case differed from other cases related to sex discrimination because of its medical ramifications.

“It seems to me that the medical issues are much more heavily involved than in many of the cases that you look to,” Roberts told Prelogar. “And if that’s true, doesn’t that make a stronger case for us to leave those determinations to the legislative bodies rather than try to determine them for ourselves?” The decision in the case, which is expected in June, could have sweeping implications for trans youth across the country. According to the Human Rights Campaign, 26 states have passed bans on gender-affirming care, affecting 39.4% of trans youth, or 118,300 trans minors between the ages of 13 and 17 across the US.

Proponents of the bans suggest that they help protect trans children from “experimental” treatments, but major medical and mental health groups reject that analysis. As part of its case defending the law, the state of Tennessee has relied on testimony from several doctors who have peddled misinformation to promote anti-trans messaging, the Guardian has previously reported. In its amicus brief supporting the challenge to the Tennessee law, the American Psychological Association (APA) endorsed “unobstructed access to healthcare and evidence-based inclusive, clinical care for transgender, gender diverse, and nonbinary individuals”.

“The health care community’s understanding of what it means to be transgender has advanced greatly over the past century,” the APA wrote. “It is now understood and widely accepted within the medical and mental health communities that an incongruence between one’s sex and gender in and of itself implies no impairment in a person’s judgment, mental health, or general social or vocational capabilities.” During oral arguments on Wednesday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal, raised severe concerns about the potential fallout from denying transgender children access to gender-affirming care. She cited the example of one of the petitioners in the case who recounted vomiting every day and going nearly mute because of their inability to speak in a voice that reflected their identity. “These are difficult decisions,” Prelogar noted. “Obviously, anytime you’re thinking about a medical intervention, you need to weigh risks and benefits. But the state has come in here, and in a sharp departure from how it normally addresses this issue, it has completely decided to override the views of the parents, the patients, the doctors who are grappling with these decisions.”

In oral arguments for the United States v. Skrmetti case at SCOTUS today, the MAGA majority on the court is highly likely to uphold Tennessee’s anti-trans law (SB1) banning gender-affirming care for trans youths.

Ban on gender-affirming care are attacks on sound medical practices, parental rights, and common sense.

The main question would be how broad or narrow to apply the ruling, and would it mean that it applies to Tennessee’s ban only or possibly nationwide? If SCOTUS rules in favor of ban, especially a broad one, then blue states have a right to defy such a lawless ruling and potentially form a case for blue state secession.

[liliannasprereadmediathek]

Don’t worry, we won’t question your reality. There really is a new episode out today ;)

Join us as we discuss Gaslight (1944) and try to shed some light on its more well-known progeny - ‘gaslighting’💡

(light bulb emoji)

What can adaptation theory tell us about how language evolves, the use of therapy speak, and the role of media in our understanding of medical terms? Let us enlighten you… 🕯️

(candle emoji)

🕯️💎🏚️🎶👰🧤🖼️ 

(candle emoji, diamond emoji, derelict house emoji, person with veil emoji, gloves emoji, framed picture emoji)

To listen, head to the link in our bio, or find us on YouTube, Spotify, or your podcasting platform of choice 🔗 

(link emoji)

For German, English, Arabic and Turkish speakers (also available in simplified German and German Sign Language) in Germany please visit https://www.frauen-gegen-gewalt.de to find local support in cases of domestic violence

Episode content warnings: murder, domestic abuse and violence, emotional manipulation and gaslighting, including interpersonal, medical, political, and institutional gaslighting. Mentions of institutional racism and white supremacy. Neither of us is a mental health professional and we will be looking at these issues from a cultural perspective.

#Gaslight #Gaslighting #IngridBergman #AngelaLansbury #GeorgeCukor #Gaslight1944 #CharlesBoyer #JosephCotten #MGM #MoviePodcast #LiliAnnaPod #LiliAnnasPrereadMediathek #queer #FeministPodcast #QueerPodcast 

📝 Shownotes: 📝

📼 Preread text (Rowan Ellis, https://youtu.be/SMFll3aIbmo)

Primary Sources:

🎞️ “Gaslight” (1944) (dir. George Cukor, wr. John Van Druten, Walter Reisch, John L. Balderston) (Screenplay: https://www.scripts.com/script/gaslight_8807) 🎭 “Gas Light” (1938) (wr. Patrick Hamilton) (premiered at the Richmond Theatre in London) 🎞️ “Gaslight” (1940) (dir. Thorold Dickinson, wr. A. R. Rawlinson, Bridget Boland)

Secondary Sources:🌐 APA Dictionary of Psychology Definition of “gaslight” (dictionary.apa.org/gaslight) 📰 “Donald Trump is Gaslighting America” (2016) (Duca, Lauren) (www.teenvogue.com/story/donald-trump-is-gaslighting-america) 📼 SciShow Psych: “Gaslighting: Abuse That Makes You Question Reality” (2017) (youtu.be/ImBEhNku_YA?si=QimAV-ZdRhigQDEO) 📚“Adaptation and Appropriation” (2005) (Sanders, Julie) 📼 The Take “Gaslighting, Explained | What Does It Meme?” (2021) (youtu.be/eN4la0xOBdM?si=Fh6tClaShAVnoE8B) 🎞️ “The Truman Show” (1998) (dir. Peter Weir, wr. Andrew Niccol) 📺 “Gaslit” (2022) (Starz) (cr. Robbie Pickering, dir. Matt Ross) 📰 “The Limits of Therapy-Speak” (Volpe, Allie 2023) (www.vox.com/even-better/23769973/limits-therapy-speak-narcissist-gaslighting-trauma-toxic) 📰“‘That’s triggering!’ Is therapy-speak changing the way we talk about ourselves?” (Morgan, Eleanor 2023) (www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/20/triggered-toxic-narcissist-are-you-fluent-in-therapy-speak) 📰 “What is gaslighting?” (Wilkinson, Alissa 2017) (www.vox.com/culture/2017/1/21/14315372/what-is-gaslighting-gaslight-movie-ingrid-bergman) 📰 “How to Spot 'Medical Gaslighting' and What to Do About It.” (Caron, Christina) (www.nytimes.com/2022/07/29/well/mind/medical-gaslighting.html) 📺 “Live Your Own Life” (“효심이네 각자도생”) (KBS2 2023-2024) 📰 “Time Magazine 2023 Person of the Year: Taylor Swift” (Lansky, Sam) (time.com/6342806/person-of-the-year-2023-taylor-swift/) 🎙️ “Stockholm Syndrome” (2018) (You’re Wrong About Podcast) 📰 “Bystander intervention” (Wiki) (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_intervention) 📺 “Unbelievable” (Susannah Grant, Ayelet Waldman, Michael Chabon) (2019, Netflix) 🎞️ “They Cloned Tyrone” (dir. Juel Taylor, wr. Tony Rettenmaier, Juel Taylor) 🎞️ “The Stepford Wives” (1975) (dir. Bryan Forbes, wr. William Goldman) 🎞️ “The Girl on the Train” (2016) (dir. Tate Taylor, wr. Erin Cressida Wilson) 📚 “Rosemary’s Baby” (1967) (Levin, Ira) 📚 “The Stepford Wives” (1972) (Levin, Ira)

📱Social Media Handles📱:

IG:     https://www.instagram.com/liliannapod/ Twitter:     https://twitter.com/liliannapod Tumblr:    https://www.tumblr.com/blog/liliannasprereadmediathek

🎹Intromusic🎹: "Wall" by Jahzaar, licenced under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)  

🎹Outro Music🎹: “Waterbeat” by DJ Lengua, licenced under Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)

🎹Transition Music🎹: gas burning stove activation and burn by EdR from Pixabay

Old fashioned clock sound by Pixabay

Walking on wooden floorboards by Pixabay

[asrisgratitudejournal]

Komunikasi Sains

Ini adalah lanjutan (bagian ke-3) dari serial pemikiran yang ku-plot/rencanakan buat kutulis hasil dari 2 tweet-ku (YANG TIDAK BERHUBUNGAN SAMA SEKALI) yang viral.

Untuk refreshing, sekalian kalau teman-teman kelewatan, 2 postingan sebelumnya adalah:

Tentang belajar dan teaching https://www.tumblr.com/asrisgratitudejournal/740330494668029952/halo-teman-teman-tumblr-kayanya-tinggal-sisa-di?source=share – dan very interestingly, dari sini ku dapat respon dan rikues untuk bikin postingan on “how to google” dari @purplishgraypeony ! – nanti yah, ini ku-pikirin dulu mau mulai dari mana ngejelasinnya, but thank you very much for the questions HUHU (tujuan tumblr ini padahal kalau dilihat dari namanya adalah untuk ku nyampah dan journaling ngelist what I am mostly grateful for, tapi malah udah lama banget nggak bikin gratitude list??? Malah jadi opinionated gini postingannya huff. Tapi gapapa, Alhamdulillah dibaca (emoji nangis), makasih everyone for being here and reading my rubbish)

Tentang facets and dimensions https://www.tumblr.com/asrisgratitudejournal/740598756281597953/dimensions?source=share

Nah yang ketiga ini, spesifik sekali ku mau komplain tentang komunikasi sains, terutama di Indonesia.

Karena kalau masih ingat (atau baca dari tulisan di atas), hasil obrolan antara ku dan salah satu temanku adalah: kami sepakat bahwa I AM SHIT in explaining stuff in social media, especially geology-related things, to wider audience, to laypeople. Kalau di kelas dan ngejelasin ke mahasiswa s1 geologi InsyaALLAH masih ok lah ya (I got a lot of comments that I speak REALLY fast in class, though. But in my defense, that’s me being excited). Nah, dari situ ku jadi bertanya-tanya kan… “why am I shit in communicating science to people?”. Ternyata jawabannya adalah: because I was not educated in that, Duh.

Beneran sesederhana: aku gak tahu (in theory) basic communication to public itu gimana caranya. Ditambah lagi, ku gak cuma menyampaikan pesan “hari ini hari Senin loh” ke warga, tapi SAINS: “isotope, umur air tanah, siklus iklim” yang nggak dibahas di kehidupan sehari-hari dan kalau orang nggak pernah baca/dengar istilah ini sebelumnya, mereka bakal “???” (literally).

Dari situ lah muncul kesimpulan juga: “OH ya memang bukan pekerjaanku untuk cerita ke orang-orang, telling science to people. I’m not equipped with any skill to do that. Ku bahkan gapernah formally belajar psychology of people.” Aku belajar dikit-dikit sih psikologi STUDENT karena sebagai dosen juga mau nggak mau aku harus tahu aku berhadapan dengan siapa, tapi power-relation yang bermain di kelas universitas antara dosen dan mahasiswa sangat berbeda sekali dengan forum di sosial media (di mana orang gak tahu aku ini siapa, aku gak tahu mereka siapa, tujuan dari interaksi kita juga gak jelas apa).

Kalau di dunia barat, antara aku (saintis) dan publik, akan ada middleman-nya lagi, yaitu: science communicator. Orang inilah yang kerjaan utamanya men-dilute, menurunkan bahasa di konten sains yang level kesulitannya setinggi-tinggi menara Eiffel itu menjadi bahasa yang lebih familiar di skena warga kebanyakan. Sehingga konten sainsnya jadi lebih mudah dipahami. Mereka jauh lebih trained di linguistics, di psikologi publik, dan di MENULIS (Part of the reason why I suck at doing science communication in social media is also because I suck at writing). Biasanya, orang-orang science comm yang udah-udah ini datangnya dari jurnalism, walaupun ada juga yang emang saintis tapi jadi science communicator, contohnya kaya Carl Sagan dan Neil deGrasse Tyson.

My two fav pop-science writers yang backgroundnya bukan saintis itu ada Elizabeth Kolbert dan Bill Bryson. Menurutku, mereka berhasil men-translate science (yang a bit dull, very factual) menjadi sesuatu yang exciting, menarik buat dibaca. Karena, terutama buat Bryson, he put A LOT OF jokes in his writing.

Science communicator ini kalau di dunia barat akan dipekerjakan oleh

Uni, jelas, karena uni butuh orang yang bisa bikin artikel tentang publikasi apa yang baru keluar dari uni itu. Kalau bisa se-bombastis mungkin artikelnya supaya orang jadi aware dan mungkin parents juga jadi makin tertarik buat nyekolahin anaknya di situ, investor juga makin tertarik buat bikin kerja sama riset dengan uni itu, dan government juga bisa ngasih uang lebih ke uni itu karena udah nunjukkin kerja yang bagus.

Research institute, baik private atau government-affiliated: contohnya NASA kalau di US. Kebanyakan dengan tujuan yang sama seperti uni: mencari uang, dan juga semacam ngasih “LPJ (Laporang Pertanggung Jawaban)” ke warga nunjukkin “nih tax lo kita gunakan dengan baik loh”

Kadang industri juga butuh, terutama yang fokusnya di R&D. Kalau Aramco nemuin cadangan minyak/gas baru, Tesla sekarang ganti baterai, Space-X mau nerbangin roket baru. Mostly kerjaannya PR sih itu, tapi akan useful sekali kalau PR-nya juga bisa mengomunikasikan sainsnya dengan baik ke publik.

Nulis buku sendiri atau bikin program podcast/tvshow sciencepop (atau involved in a team yang kerjaannya producing science content). Biasanya nanti fundingnya cari dari mainstream media outlets semacam National Geographic, New York Times, Netflix, BBC. Akan harus pitching dulu segala macem sih, tapi pasti akan tetap butuh orang science comm di situ, terutama buat script writingnya dsb.

Kalau mau cek lebih banyak lagi bisa digoogling sendiri, contoh ini aku masukkin “science communication uk” di Linkedin:

Terus kalau googling course juga ada beberapa MSc Science Comm yang bisa dicari di UK:

Imperial https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate-taught/science-communication/

UCL https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/taught-degrees/science-communication-msc

Sheffield https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/postgraduate/taught/courses/2024/science-communication-msc

Cambridge (tapi somehow dia bilang dicancel sih yang ini) https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/course/postgraduate-diploma-science-communication-0

Dan entah kenapa juga pas aku googling “science communication study” gaada uni US yang keluar? Apa karena geographical location-ku di UK ya? Entahlah. Tapi barusan googling dan nemu artikel ini (basically dia cerita what’s good a MSc in ScienceComm is):

Jadi, tujuan postingan ini apa Non??

Gaada. Cuma mau bilang aja seperti yang sudah kutulis di note sebelumnya: bahwa there is a crucial need for science communicator/science journalist yang bisa bridging antara scientist yang komunikasinya jongkok ini dengan khalayak banyak (terutama netizen). Can’t academics be their very own communicators? Bisa aja, ada success story-nya, tapi tidak mainstream. Makanya juga keberadaan podcast-podcast kaya Endgame-nya Pak Gita atau pop-science books itu sangat helpful untuk membuat netizen familiar dengan sains/apapun yang rakyat kebanyakan nggak familiar with.

Ku di catetan nulis: “compare Clive O. dengan Elizabeth K. for example”. Tapi jujur malas banget HUHU. Tapi mungkin kumasukkin reference for example aja yah. Selebihnya kalian rasakan sendiri bedanya. Jadi ku kemarin habis nyelesai-in The Sixth Extinction-nya Elizabeth Kolbert and it WAS FANTASTIC (tapi tentu saja aku biased karena aku educated in geology). Kolbert ini journalistnya The New Yorker, this is her latest piece of writing yang keluar HARI INI (29 Januari 2024) on wildfires on earth: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/05/the-perverse-policies-that-fuel-wildfires (harusnya sih masih pada bisa free article).

Versus

Ku lagi baca Clive Oppenheimer’s Mountains of Fire (lagi-lagi biased karena science-pop pilihanku akan masih tetap berhubungan dengan geology). Oppenheimer ini saintis totok, volcanologist-nya Cambridge, temannya supervisor-ku. Ku pertama kali ngeliat dia di Into the Inferno di Netflix. And if I tell you how hard it is reading his book?? Even for people trained in geology???

Ku mencoba mencari tulisan populer dia tapi ternyata tidak ada, jadi bisa lihat preview buku dia di googlebooks aja yah.

Dari dua example di atas semoga nangkap maksud aku. Kelihatan mana yang terbiasa nulis populer vs nulis journal paper. Ku gabilang yang satu lebih baik dari yang lain ya tapi btw.

Terusss dari menulis postingan ini ku menemukan banyak sekali new information and new cool website! (The beauty of doing “research” in writing a post). Ku menemukan website https://sciencebites.org/ yang mana tujuannya adalah menulis kembali (rewrite) academic paper in a more “pop” way. Ku tadi nemu ini gara-gara kebawa ke https://www.scicommbites.org/ , mereka juga punya versi geosciencesnya: https://geobites.org/ -- ku cukup yakin keilmuan kalian-pun akan ada di situ!

Dah deh itu dulu aja. Habis ini mau bikin postingan gratitude list dulu sepertinya. Setelah sekian lama. Byea.

Ps. Kontemplasi-ku sebelum tidur semalam ternyata banyak yang nge-like HUHU. Baru aja si akun X JATAM (Jaringan Advokasi Tambang) https://twitter.com/jatamnas ngepost orang-orang tambang yang afiliasi ke 01. Yang 02 udah dibahas abis-abisan kemarin kayanya. Tapi 03 juga ada. Intinya udah se-kotor se…intricate itu ke-kompleks-an conflict of interest antara pembuat peraturan dan pengusaha kita… Yasudah… Mau gimana lagi…

Flat 39, 29/01/2024 19:11

[kafkaoftherubble]

It's because of evolutionary pressure:

human lives are short,

human cognitive resources (i.e. attention) are limited,

and human memory is restrictive.

The human brain needs to learn from small data sets due to their limited lifetime as well as their memory capacity. It's therefore good at extrapolating patterns, heuristics-style (instead of relying strictly on pure statistics), and filling in gaps of knowledge through things like creative application of existing knowledge or predictions based on existing knowledge and past memory.

Meanwhile, AI can theoretically run forever (or is built to run way longer than humans could live), sift through more data than the human brain could ever possibly manage (and then some), and construct statistics instead of heuristics. While the human brain is terrible at big numbers, AI is not. AI can also copy information from each other, while humans must rely on communication between one another—which means there will always be gaps of knowledge between humans, but none between AIs.

AIs also do not need to compete for food, mates, and all that usual stuff. They do not need to go anywhere, either. Animals do, so humans evolved to be energy-efficient (though the brain still consumes a shit ton of energy relative to other functions).

In other words, AIs don't have the same kind of "selective pressure" that we do, so they don't possess our ability to "make more out of less."

I don't think the part about "using a lot of infrastructure" and "consuming massive power" are necessarily long-term problems for AIs, given the continuous innovation of computing power. But to "make more out of less", though? I personally think humans will triumph over machines in this field for a long time—unless computer and AI scientists decide to take a crack at teaching AIs to do symbolic learning instead of the current connectivist model right now.

--------------------

Citations and Links

This short-short ramble was cobbled from my fragmented notes and memory of these sources:

Tom Griffiths' interview in APA's Speaking of Psychology podcast, "How studying human cognition can help us make better AI systems, with Tom Griffiths, PhD." (episode 246)

BBC's Crowd Science podcast: "Human v Machine."

Sean Carroll's solo episode in The Mindscape Podcast, "258 | Solo: AI Thinks Different."

If there's anything wrong in this ramble, it's my wonky memory's mistake! Hahahah.

Thank you for reading my ramble.

[dante090]

What is the best dissertation writing service in Canada?

Introduction:

Completing a dissertation is one of the most critical milestones in any graduate or postgraduate academic journey. Whether you're enrolled in a master's or a PhD program, the dissertation marks the culmination of years of research, learning, and academic growth. However, with high academic standards, tight deadlines, and intense research demands, many students find themselves seeking Dissertation help in Canada.

This blog explores what makes a dissertation service truly the best, evaluates the leading features students should look for, and explains why The Student Helpline is a top choice for Dissertation help in Canada.

The Importance of Choosing the Right Dissertation Help in Canada:

Dissertations are not just lengthy assignments—they represent original contributions to your academic field. A poorly structured or inadequately researched dissertation can delay graduation or even impact your career trajectory. That’s why choosing the best dissertation writing service in Canada is crucial.

A reliable dissertation writing service should offer:

Expert academic writers with subject specialization

Plagiarism-free, original research content

On-time delivery with revision support

Confidentiality and ethical assistance

24/7 support for ongoing student queries

These factors determine whether the service truly supports your academic goals or falls short.

Key Features to Look for in a Dissertation Writing Service:

To evaluate any dissertation help provider in Canada, students must consider the following essential elements:

1. Qualified Academic Experts

A top-tier service should have writers with advanced degrees (Master’s or PhD) in relevant disciplines. Their subject-matter expertise ensures the content aligns with academic standards across Canadian universities.

2. Customization and Personalization

Every dissertation topic is unique. The service should offer personalized support tailored to your research questions, methodology, and university guidelines.

3. Plagiarism-Free Content

Originality is non-negotiable. The best services provide 100% plagiarism-free dissertations with thorough referencing and citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, or Harvard styles.

4. Timely Delivery

Missing dissertation deadlines can mean academic penalties. A trustworthy dissertation service in Canada ensures timely delivery with milestones.

5. Revision and Support

The availability of multiple revisions and real-time communication with writers enhances satisfaction and academic alignment.

Why The Student Helpline is the Best Dissertation Writing Service in Canada?

Among numerous providers, The Student Helpline continues to lead the way in offering high-quality dissertation help to students across Canada. Whether you're studying in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, or Halifax, this consultancy delivers consistent excellence.

1. Academic Expertise Across Subjects

The Student Helpline employs highly qualified writers with degrees in fields ranging from Engineering and Business to Psychology, Nursing, Law, and Computer Science. This allows them to cater to a wide variety of dissertation topics, including qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

2. Proven Track Record

Thousands of Canadian students have benefited from their professional dissertation help over the years. With stellar reviews and repeat customers, their client satisfaction rate speaks volumes about their service quality.

3. Ethical and Confidential Assistance

The service maintains strict confidentiality policies and promotes academic integrity. Their role is to guide, support, and offer expert assistance—never to replace a student's own effort.

4. Round-the-Clock Student Support

Understanding that dissertation stress doesn't operate on a 9 to 5 schedule, The Student Helpline offers 24/7 support. Whether you need urgent changes or late-night updates, help is just a message away.

5. Milestone-Based Submissions

They allow you to review work chapter by chapter—be it the proposal, literature review, methodology, results, or conclusion—making it easier to collaborate and stay on track.

Types of Dissertation Help Offered by The Student Helpline:

When it comes to dissertation help in Canada, The Student Helpline offers comprehensive support tailored to every stage of the dissertation process:

Dissertation Proposal Writing

Crafting a convincing proposal is the first step in winning approval from your advisor or committee. Experts at The Student Helpline help you frame compelling research questions, objectives, and methodology.

Literature Review Assistance

Conducting an exhaustive review of academic sources is no easy task. Their team ensures a critical and analytical synthesis of existing literature aligned with your research theme.

Research Design and Methodology

Whether you’re conducting a qualitative study with interviews or a quantitative analysis using SPSS or R, The Student Helpline offers precise guidance and implementation support.

Data Analysis and Results

Their experts help you make sense of your data, run statistical tests, and interpret the results accurately—turning raw numbers into meaningful insights.

Dissertation Editing and Proofreading

Beyond writing, they offer meticulous editing services to ensure grammatical accuracy, logical flow, and formatting perfection.

Who Can Benefit from Dissertation Help in Canada?

Dissertation services are not only for struggling students. Many high-performing scholars use them for time management, language clarity, and expert feedback. Here's who often benefits from dissertation help:

International Students: Facing language barriers or unfamiliarity with Canadian academic standards

Working Professionals: Balancing full-time jobs while pursuing part-time postgraduate studies

Students with Tight Deadlines: Who need extra support in completing sections quickly

Those Facing Writer’s Block: Who are stuck on chapters like literature review or data interpretation

Conclusion:

Completing a dissertation can feel overwhelming, but with the right support system, it becomes manageable—and even rewarding. If you're seeking the best dissertation writing service in Canada, look no further than The Student Helpline. Their tailored dissertation help services, expert writers, and commitment to quality make them a trusted partner in your academic journey. Whether you need full dissertation writing or support with individual sections, this consultancy ensures your work meets the highest academic standards.

[enolabar]

Essential Guide to Support a Trans Friend: 10 Real-World Tips

Learning how to support a trans friend is one of the most powerful acts of everyday allyship. Trans people worldwide still experience higher rates of violence and discrimination; a 2024 survey by the EU Fundamental Rights Agency found that 67 % of trans respondents avoided public spaces last year to stay safe. The ten steps below—rooted in empathy, respect and evidence-based practice—show exactly how to stand beside your transgender friends.* 1. Listen First, Ask Second The simplest way to support a trans friend is to listen without judgment. Start with open-ended invitations such as “How can I show up for you this week?” and respect any boundaries they set. Active listening validates their lived experience and prevents well-meaning but intrusive questions. 2. Pronouns & Names: Zero-Tolerance for Error Using the correct name and pronouns is non-negotiable. If you slip up, apologise briefly, correct yourself and move on—centering your friend, not your guilt. Normalise sharing your own pronouns in email signatures and on social profiles to ease the burden on trans people. 3. Educate Yourself Proactively Your friend is not a walking dictionary. Read trusted resources like the GLAAD Transgender FAQ and the World Health Organization’s gender-incongruence fact sheet before asking questions. Arriving informed shows true commitment to support a trans friend. 4. Speak Up When You Hear Transphobia Silence sustains stigma. Call out slurs and “jokes” in all-cis spaces: a calm “That language isn’t okay” can shift the room. Publicly challenging bias protects your friend even when they’re not present and models allyship for others. 5. Honour Each Transition Path Every transition journey is unique. Some people pursue hormones or surgery; others do not. The best way to support a trans friend is to honour their choices and offer practical help—rides to appointments, a sofa for post-op recovery, or celebrating a haircut that affirms their gender. Ready to deepen your allyship?Join Enola to connect with trans voices, swap resources and discuss real-world support in a safe queer community. 6. Protect Privacy Like a Guardian Outing someone without consent can jeopardise their safety at work, school or home. Always ask before tagging photos, sharing locations or discussing their gender history. Good allies guard secrets as carefully as their own. 7. Amplify Trans Voices & Creators Follow, share and fund trans journalists, artists and activists. Explore first-person essays on Enola’s Stories feed, then signal-boost favourites on social media. Visibility leads to influence—and influence drives change. 8. Offer Concrete, Everyday Help Tangible gestures speak volumes: accompany your friend to a gender-affirming clothes shop, rehearse coming-out talks, or help navigate paperwork for legal name changes. Practical assistance makes your promise to support a trans friend more than words. 9. Celebrate Every Milestone Whether your friend corrects a misgendering colleague or secures ID documents in their true name, mark the win. Recognition combats the drip of daily micro-aggressions and reinforces self-confidence. 10. Keep Showing Up Allyship isn’t a badge you earn once—it’s an ongoing practice. Laws, language and personal circumstances evolve; so should you. Stay curious, keep learning (try the APA Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Transgender People), and check in regularly: “How are things this week?” Consistent presence is the clearest way to support a trans friend over time. Why This Matters Mastering how to support a trans friend doesn’t just help one person—it strengthens the entire LGBTQ+ community and chips away at structural discrimination. Together, we can build classrooms, workplaces and public spaces where every gender identity is respected. Quick Resource List GLAAD Transgender FAQ – language & myth-busting Transgender Europe Rights Map – up-to-date legal status by country Trans Lifeline – peer support hotline, crisis resources

WHO Gender-Incongruence Fact Sheet – global health perspective APA Transgender Guidelines – mental-health best practices For daily updates on legislation, culture, and community wins that affect trans and queer people worldwide, keep an eye on Enola’s LGBTQ+ news hub—you’ll find the latest headlines and in-depth analysis at enola.gr/news.  

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Dr. David R. Williams (June 12, 1954) is the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health, as well as a professor of African and African American Studies and Sociology at Harvard University.

Born in the Caribbean Island of Aruba, he attended the University of the Southern Caribbean. He earned his MPH from Loma Linda University and his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan, He joined Harvard to become a Norman Professor of Public Health. He served as a senior research advisor on the PBS documentary “Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?” He delivered a TED Talk titled “How Racism Makes Us Sick,” which has amassed over 1 million views from around the world and has been translated into 18 different languages.

He developed the Everyday Discrimination Scale. This scale has been used extensively in health studies as a measure of how perceived discrimination may affect psychological and physical distress. He contends that race is not a useful genetic category but a profoundly useful social category. He believes residential segregation is one of the biggest contributors to the reduced health of Black Americans. His research has appeared in top journals in sociology, psychology, medicine, public health, and epidemiology, and he has published over 400 scholarly papers in scientific journals and edited collections.

He serves as the chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

He has been invited to speak at scientific conferences around the globe, presenting his ideas in Europe, Africa, and the US. A member of the American Psychology Association, he contributed to the 2017 APA report, “Stress and Health Disparities.” Due to his research, he continues to be one of the most cited Black social scientists. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence