Oh my god I get it now. I genuinely thought he was pointing a hairdryer at a fancy podcast mic or something 💀

I’d say it fits the definition of “dysphoria”, even if you don’t think it’s necessarily gender dysphoria.

My understanding is that: when a trans person looks in the mirror or sees pictures of themselves, and there’s a mismatch between “what they see” vs. “what they feel” – that unpleasant feeling is what’s meant by “dysphoria”. For a transgender person, that feeling could be all or partly about their genitals (masturbating or having sex with “wrong” genitals can make you feel dysphoric), but not necessarily.

Abigail Thorn (a trans YouTuber and philosophy expert) has argued that “gender dysphoria” is a misnomer, and something that cis people also experience. Watch a couple of minutes from this timestamp: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1eWIshUzr8&t=3886s

She also brings up “body dysmorphia”, so maybe that’s another one for you to google (although she argues that it’s basically the same thing).

Lol, where do you think?

I’d love it if you did that! Thanks!

I think it’ll happen, but I don’t think it’s happening yet.

The unease is already there (“the internet used to be a place”/“why isn’t the internet fun any more?” sentiments and #OldWeb #SlowWeb hashtags), but I don’t think people are ready to do anything about it.

I’m only one guy, with a small internet following, but I recently had a go at launching a small “Gaymers” webring (well, a simplified version of one). I promoted it on my socials, I laid out why I think it’s a good idea, I paid to “Blaze” it on Tumblr – I even emailed some like-minded creators directly.

I rewrote the webpage multiple times, to try to make it more persuasive and more concise. I added a contact form in case people felt uncomfortable emailing me. I loosened the rules to allow commercial websites, as long as they were still independent. I worked hard on the widget and incorporated feedback (made it respect prefers-reduced-motion and made a static version for sites where animation would feel out of place).

I got some good feedback; lots of people said it was interesting, and a good idea. But literally no one joined or expressed any interest in joining. 🤷‍♂️

I’m going to have one more go at promoting it next time I’ve got money to spare, but I’ll most likely end up quietly deleting it along with any evidence it existed, because a webring of one is fucking embarrassing. 💀

I guess if you build it, they will not necessarily come lmao

I’d love them to spend even 1% of their zany marketing budget on improving the actual course content. 😬

I’m even trying a free trial of Max at the moment and… the video calls with Lily that now make up about 50% of the course (on Japanese, at least), are so useless. The questions seem totally random, there’s no natural flow to anything.

Lily: Hello.
Me: Hello.
Lily: (long pause)
Lily: Hello.
Lily: (long pause)
Lily: Do you like coffee or tea?
Me: I like coffee, you?
Lily: (long pause)
Lily: Is that so? I also like coffee. Is Toronto lively today?
Me: (?!?) Um… yes, it’s lively?
Lily: (long pause)
Lily: Is that so? OK, let’s talk again soon!
Me: See you later.
Lily: (long pause)
Lily: See you later.

And then it doesn’t even give me any feedback about how I did??? It’s bewildering, who’s paying £20/month for this?

People do it without being required! I bet Alexa has seen some shit

Potentially also:

The Roottrees are Dead (Steam)
A genealogical mystery straight out of 1998. Scour the early Internet for clues, uncover hidden connections, and piece together the family tree behind the secretive Roottree Corporation.

The Operator (currently free on Epic Games)
Welcome to the FDI. As our newest Operator, your role is to use your detective skills to assist our field agents and investigate mysterious crimes. Use cutting-edge FDI software to dig for clues, solve puzzles, and uncover the truth.

Her Story (Steam)
A woman is interviewed seven times by the police. Search the video database and explore hundreds of authentic clips to discover her story in this groundbreaking and award winning narrative game. (Also has a follow-up called Telling Lies that I liked a lot less.)

Orwell: Keeping an Eye on You (Steam)
Big Brother has arrived - and it’s you. Investigate the lives of citizens to find those responsible for a series of terror attacks. Information from the internet, personal communications and private files are all accessible to you. But, be warned, the information you supply will have consequences. (Also has a follow up called Orwell: Ignorance Is Strength that I liked a lot less.)

I don’t know how these compare to Hypnospace Outlaw, but they’re all definitely “interacting with a fake computer desktop” games. (And thanks, I’ll look into your recs too, I’m always looking for more stuff like this)

I’m currently playing to a T, by the Katamari creator.

Not remotely similar, and hard to recommend to most people tbh… but it has the same joyful silliness that just makes me smile, somehow.

Honestly, Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective.

The remaster got some attention, but it still feels pretty niche for a game made by the Ace Attorney guy. I never felt like it got its “moment” in the same way as, say, Blue Prince.

And yet, from the moment the 15-year-old announcement trailer dropped, I knew it was going to be in “top 5 of all time” territory for me. 😍

Neurotypical person:

• May procrastinate, but can still “decide” to do the task if they put their mind to it
• Maybe some guilt about the procrastinating
• Does the task
• Gets a hit of dopamine, so they feel good and think, “why did I put it off?”
• Remembers that next time there’s a task

ADHDer:

• Get up. Get up now. Please get up and do the task. Why can’t I get up and do the task? I hate myself so much. I’m letting everyone down… Seriously, just do the task, I’m begging you…
• Major guilt spiral, RSD, feels bad man
• Does the task
• Doesn’t get a hit of dopamine, so they feel the same and think, “ugh, why did I bother?”
• Remembers that next time there’s a task

The latest ep of The Rest Is Entertainment was mostly about the Noel doc, and it sounds pretty interesting. Probably not as interesting as hearing Richard Osman trying to stay right on the line between “Noel Edmonds is the most talented presenter I’ve ever worked with” and “he’s a crackpot and a conman, and tried to sell people a magical beep machine to cure their cancer”. 😬

We welcome everybody.

Ew, no, not you.

They know they already have a Bing logo they could use, right? 🤔

Not that this is out of character for Microsoft. Office became Office 365, which became Microsoft 365… unless you search for it online, because then all three names show up.

Likewise, Bing Chat became Copilot… but then the main Office launcher became Microsoft 365 Copilot, so there are two Copilot apps on people’s PCs and it’s not immediately clear what the difference is. (This joins the two OneNote apps and two Outlook apps.)

And, they finally finished retiring the MSN brand and changed everything over to “Microsoft Start” (not to be confused with the iconic “Start” button 😬)… only to make a new MSN logo and change it all back.

Meanwhile, there’s a Bing app for Android that has an almost identical feature set to Edge, but different branding and a different UI. There’s also an MSN app, which… has almost an identical feature set as the other two apps, but a slightly different UI to the Bing app. 😭

This is one of those things where I assumed it anyway was banned. Although I feel like there are still crocodile-skin handbags, so I don’t know why I assumed that. 🤔

To be fair they also said:

Talking on the phone, got an interview
With the Rolling Stone, they’re saying,
“Now you’re rich and now you’re famous
Fake-ass girls all know your name and
‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’
Your first hit, aren’t you ashamed?”
Of the life, of the life, of the life we’re living

So at least they’re self aware 😅

That’s a good point. Although Abigail Thorn (Philosophy Tube) kinda turned it on its head, apologies in advance for probably fucking up my explanation. 😅

If (e.g.) a cis woman has dark arm hair, peach fuzz, a “strong jaw”, etc, and is really bothered by it because it makes her feel less feminine or “man ish”… isn’t she basically experiencing gender dysphoria? And if she gets laser hair removal or whatever, isn’t that actually a type of “gender-affirming care”?

It made me wonder if that’s somehow the key to making people feel more empathetic, idk.

I had a look to see if I could find the “opposite” of this poll, and found this from 2021:

Three in four Americans (75%) say they would be somewhat or very comfortable learning a coworker is transgender. Nearly seven in ten Americans (69%) say they would be somewhat or very comfortable having a close friend tell them they are transgender. This percentage has gone up, from 63% in 2019. In addition, nearly seven in ten Americans (68%) say they would be somewhat or very comfortable learning someone in their church or faith community is transgender, and nearly two-thirds of Americans (65%) report that they would feel somewhat or very comfortable learning that a local elementary school teacher is transgender, up from 56% in 2019.

Via PRRI: https://www.prri.org/press-release/survey-americans-increasingly-support-transgender-rights

It’s good to see the numbers are maybe not as bad as LGBTQ+ people think they are, although as a gay guy with trans friends, I can totally understand feeling that way. (I’m not American, mind you.)

I do wonder whether support may have dropped in the last couple of years – the bathrooms/“women’s sports” culture war feels newer than 2021 to me. 🤔