The Void

Thing is, I don't think tumblr staff is uniquely transphobic - especially since it's not just trans women's selfies and transmasc art getting censored, but classic queer comics, Black bloggers (especially women), and more, even as our more visible staff members keep talking about trying to fix the problem.

I suspect it's something much bigger and with much worse implications for the entire internet.

I suspect more appeals are being left to the automated system than we think (which they're NOT supposed to do but due to the sheer volume theyre having to deal with, well...) and, between the evergreen problem of report-brigading by bigots, the other evergreen problem of a company internally sucking at determining where justified criticism of their practices ends and harassment begins, and the problems of fighting the porn bots (because every single one you see is a product of survivorship bias) leading the algorithm to become sexist (remember #girlgate?), the automod algorithm is basically collapsing in on itself and learning all the worst biases of society MORE than ever before.

Which, given that these systems are being deployed all OVER the internet and being touted as objective and unbiased because ~computers can't be bigots~, should fucking horrify you.

To take this a step further, I feel tumblr's moderation problems are a, uh..."lovely" preview of what we might need to be on the lookout for going forward with social platforms on the internet, in MULTIPLE horrifying ways.

Because...look. It's flawed, but from a human cost standpoint it is FAR better for the majority of moderation to be automated. Manual moderation is a PTSD meat grinder. The stuff you don't see that gets filtered out automatically from most platforms includes everything from CSAM, to execution videos, to animal torture, to hate speech so intense and graphically violent that it would make you nauseous, to actionable threats of violence aimed at kids and animals, and more. There is no ethical way to expose people to that 8 hours a day, at the volume demanded by the modern internet. We know this, because that's how it's worked in the past and the trauma it inflicts on people is well known. Never mind that, conditions in domestic cubicle farms are bad enough, but this work is often outsourced to the global south, 8 hours a day is a SHORT shift for a lot of the people working these jobs, which only makes the whole situation even worse...

But for one, we know for a fact that algorithms are...NOT ready to handle that job. For example, here on tumblr, we still see a ton of porn bots and other spam bots, but remember:

For every single one we see, I would hazard a guess that at least 20 get banned before anyone even gets a chance to notice, and they go away pretty fast once reported...

But we still see the ones that break through. Which, to be fair, is even worse under solely manual moderation, since an actual human person has to see the problem in order to stop it, but it is still very There to prove that the system is fallible. Luckily, we have the report button. Unfortunately, it depends on users knowing how to use it...and using it in good faith.

So, in the interest of trying to keep moderation...okay lets be totally honest the corporate reason is to make it CHEAPER; making it less harmful to human workers (because people still need to train the system, but they need to be exposed to a lot less horrible shit to train an algorithm than to actively monitor a website) is just a side effect, but the point is that we end up with...bias automation, which seems to only get worse and worse as time goes on.

For two, let's look at the current tech zeitgeist. As much as I hate to bring up the drawbacks of the AI fad because it makes a lot of people's brains just shut off in vehement rejection of anything that looks like AI might be involved, this really is one of them - too many people are trusting machine learning WAY too much. This is still in very experimental stages. It's FAR from unbiased, as we've just discussed. Yet, because tech companies want to sell it NOW, they're presenting it as Totally Ready To Sell, and The Future, and...Objective. Cold Hard Data.

Imagine how much worse it will be if these algorithms end up getting used in not just internet moderation, but full on law enforcement, before they get better. After all, they're already trying to use facial recognition that way.

And, to make it even more horrifying, let's also look at it from a legal standpoint on the platform's end.

Tumblr, under Verizon, settled a lawsuit over moderation bias. They were ordered to go back to more human oversight and retrain the algorithm, and...for a while things were going okay-ish, the problem never went away but it SEEMED to be doing slightly better?

...but they can't roll back the porn ban, because SESTA/FOSTA are a thing, and payment processors restrict services when it comes to anything they declare too "adult", and KOSA is at risk of actually getting passed (PLEASE keep calling and writing your representatives!!), and so much else...

And we have a wave of book bans and state laws that formally declare queerness to be "sexually explicit" going down...

So, website operators are being put in a HELLISH catch-22 situation. On the one hand, we have nondiscrimination laws. As a business, you CAN'T just declare that a protected class of people is more Inherently Sexual than others. On the other hand, we have legal precedents being set that being queer IS inherently pornographic. In other words, we're approaching a situation where it is LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE for a platform to stay legally above board. You DON'T censor the queers, you're "providing porn to minors". You DO, you're violating nondiscrimination laws.

I cannot begin to stress how absolutely hellish that will be for EVERYONE - both users and webmasters alike.

Tl;dr: yes tumblr's moderation is biased, and the probable reason makes me WISH it could be attributed to just some absolute raging bigoted fuckweasels on staff. Buckle up and call your representatives and for FUCK'S SAKE DO NOT LET DESANTIS GET ANYWHERE IN 2024.

Well, did you?

So this is a visual representation of “are the new users you’re changing the entire app and website layout/features for in the room with us right now”.

I feel like the first class you played in DND tells a lot about you

Reblog and put in the tags what your first class was

if u feel the first cramp and think "i dont need a painkiller yet, itll pass" ? that the devil speaking, take that painkiller immediately

It's a lot easier to prevent cramps from getting bad than to stop them once they already are. Take the medicine sooner and use the heating pad sooner rather than later.

This is true of pain medication for ANY condition. My mom drilled this into me back when she worked as an O.R. nurse: Do not wait until the pain is bad. If you know it’s going to be, get ahead of it. First cramp? Medicate now. Twinges of a headache? Medicate now. Pulled your back and you know you’ll feel it later? Medicate NOW.

hey you!

yeah, you who has trouble swallowing pills.

When I was about 23, I finally had someone teach me a trick that worked.  Put the pill in your mouth, take a sip of liquid to hold in your mouth.  Toss your head back dramatically so the pill and liquid roll to the back of your tongue.  While your head is still back like you’re doing a Pepsi commercial, take another drink and swallow.

You’re welcome.

Unless it didn’t work for you in which case, back to crushing them up with two spoons.  Sorry about that.

I don’t mean to derail this post, but I always get wary about wholesale recommendations to crush what you can’t swallow because there are some medications that cannot under any circumstance be crushed. I’ve seen the fallout from pills that got crushed that should never be crushed, and it in some of those cases it was life-threatening.

Luckily, when I went to pharmacy school we had a whole class on the topic of swallowing pills! Pharmacists see patients of all ages and abilities, and throughout life a person’s ability to swallow can change drastically, so we discussed the various means of addressing this need in our patients.

The above advice to fling your pills back with a mouthful of water is legit advice. Just don’t choke! Maybe not the best option for kids or accident-prone adults.

For young patients who are just learning the trick of swallowing pills, or adults who never caught on to the knack, there’s a method of starting out small because there can be a lot of anxiety around the activity that can make the experience even worse. Think super low stakes, no pressure. Go to the baking aisle and get the smallest sprinkle you can find, so tiny it will dissolve on the tongue as soon as it’s in your mouth. If you have to break a sprinkle in half or into quarters, so be it. Let the candy sprinkle be as small as you need it to be so that it isn’t scary. Even if the sprinkle dissolves, swallow anyways to get used to the sensation of swallowing on command for this purpose. Then find a bigger kind of sprinkle and repeat process. Find a slightly bigger sprinkle again, repeat process. Do this over a period of days to weeks to simply get used to the sensation to swallowing on command in a situation with absolutely nothing at stake except sprinkles. You can work your way up to those decorative sprinkle balls for cakes - I’ve seen some that are straight up pill-sized. I’ve worked with kids who are just learning the process and adults who have anxiety around the issue of pill swallowing, and using the sprinkle method has had decent success, though it’s not perfect, not everyone builds their way up, and it does take days to weeks to build the confidence/swallowing-on-command reflex.

If the sprinkle method is not for you, alternative formulations could be your thing. There are many medications that have alternative formulations to pills, such as liquid suspensions, chewables, orally dissolving tablets, sublingual/buccal tablets or films, capsules that can be opened, nasal sprays, suppositories, patches, creams/ointments, injectables, etc… I’ve worked with compounding pharmacies that specialize in creating alternative formulations like lozenges and lollipops for kids who were in no way capable of pill-swallowing. It may be worth it to ask if there is an alternative formulation to the medication you are taking if swallowing is an absolute no-go for you.

When I work with certain geriatric populations who can still swallow food but may have lost the coordination to swallow pills, putting the pill in a soft, easily-swallowable food can help them immensely with coordinating the swallowing reflex. Same thing can apply to anyone else whose issue is just trying to coordinate the swallowing reflex around something as small as a pill. Various examples of food that I see used in hospital are puddings, jams, and apple sauce. Other soft foods like mashed potato or spray cheese in a can also work, if savoury options are needed. Just be sure to ask your pharmacist if the medication you are dealing with needs to be taken on an empty stomach or not, because if the medication requires an empty stomach, then this is not the method for you. Luckily, there are more medications in the world that can be taken with food than are are without food, so your chances are good that this method will work.

That all being said, I’ve dealt with hundreds of different kinds of medications, and a lot of them can be crushed if you absolutely need to do so. For everyone’s safety, I would recommend asking a pharmacist if it is safe to crush your medication before doing so.

Some reasons why a pill can’t be crushed can include: coated for time-release reasons or so the pill dissolves in specific segments of your digestive tract. Other pills need to be swallowed whole because the medication itself is super irritating and can burn your throat or you could accidentally aspirate into your lungs. Most pills are the most vile-tasting shit you’ll ever encounter in your life and some are so disgusting that they’re film-coated literally so you don’t throw up from the taste.

With that all in mind, I dearly apologize to OP for the pill-swallowing ramble. This is probably not what you imagined when you shared your post. I am proud of you for finding the right trick that addresses your pill swallowing need; I hope that perhaps someone else might find your trick helpful, or may find something helpful in my advice.

this is so fucking insidious

people asked for a matching Crowley to the Aziraphale from yesterday so here he is

and the triptych is complete (thank you @scotchnlondonfogg for suggesting this ❤️}