Cat Found!!!
October 9, 2022 5:47 PM Subscribe
«Link to audio» As a joke, Jessica Williamson posts a fake “CAT FOUND” poster with pictures of a possum instead of a cat. To her surprise, she gets hundreds of phone calls that ultimately shift her view on humanity. (8 minutes)
«Link to transcript»
“I just wrote ‘cat found’ above two pictures of possums that I had printed off the internet. One of the possums looks like he's crouching, disturbed by an invasive camera lens. And then the other possum is hissing.“
«Link to transcript»
“I just wrote ‘cat found’ above two pictures of possums that I had printed off the internet. One of the possums looks like he's crouching, disturbed by an invasive camera lens. And then the other possum is hissing.“
I feel like opossums actually don’t get rabies.
posted by snofoam at 6:15 PM on October 9, 2022 [14 favorites]
posted by snofoam at 6:15 PM on October 9, 2022 [14 favorites]
(It’s still nice to know that people wanted to help her stay safe.)
posted by snofoam at 6:16 PM on October 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by snofoam at 6:16 PM on October 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
This tracks with my intuition that the rate of assholes in the world is about 10% - enough so that, in small groups, and even in somewhat larger ones, you can have no assholes, but eventually someone's going to ruin everything for everyone else. I seem to recall it's about the same rate of people making false or misleading police reports.
The implication of this is that basically any utopian vision that relies on everyone doing the same Good Things (whatever those are defined as in this framework) will never work, because you can't do much about that 10%, but simultaneously, any dystopian vision that posits that there's a lot more than 10% of the world that are assholes is probably also false. 10% is still a lot of people! But it's a minority. (It's enough that at least some of those visions of the world are coming from those assholes.)
90% of us share at least some values. I find that comforting.
posted by Merus at 6:40 PM on October 9, 2022 [30 favorites]
The implication of this is that basically any utopian vision that relies on everyone doing the same Good Things (whatever those are defined as in this framework) will never work, because you can't do much about that 10%, but simultaneously, any dystopian vision that posits that there's a lot more than 10% of the world that are assholes is probably also false. 10% is still a lot of people! But it's a minority. (It's enough that at least some of those visions of the world are coming from those assholes.)
90% of us share at least some values. I find that comforting.
posted by Merus at 6:40 PM on October 9, 2022 [30 favorites]
my intuition that the rate of assholes in the world is about 10%
I agree with your overall point but think you might be failing to include those who may not act maliciously out of specific intent but would still be a chaotic force in a utopia, the Keyes Constant.
posted by Celatone at 7:54 PM on October 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
I agree with your overall point but think you might be failing to include those who may not act maliciously out of specific intent but would still be a chaotic force in a utopia, the Keyes Constant.
posted by Celatone at 7:54 PM on October 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
Yeah, it is in fact extremely rare for possums to carry rabies (CDC). Because they're marsupials, they're more distantly related to humans than most other mammals and thus there are few diseases they can contract that are communicable to humans. It's also thought that their comparatively low body temperature may play a role in them not being susceptible to rabies.
Regardless, it's a nice story. Putting her actual phone number up on a joke poster was a bold move, but nicer to the people calling to check on her safety than if she'd given a fake number.
posted by biogeo at 8:35 PM on October 9, 2022 [5 favorites]
Regardless, it's a nice story. Putting her actual phone number up on a joke poster was a bold move, but nicer to the people calling to check on her safety than if she'd given a fake number.
posted by biogeo at 8:35 PM on October 9, 2022 [5 favorites]
I liked the story. But I especially liked the one immediately after, Kiese Laymon (one of my favorite authors, Long Division and How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, among others) interviewing Darryl Lennox, about how Darryl's blindness changed his interactions with strangers.
Thanks for posting.
posted by Gorgik at 8:39 PM on October 9, 2022 [6 favorites]
Thanks for posting.
posted by Gorgik at 8:39 PM on October 9, 2022 [6 favorites]
jenfullmoon, that's an FPP for if we ever want to resurrect the Giant Metal Chicken discussion as a special present for the mods.
posted by tigrrrlily at 8:46 PM on October 9, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by tigrrrlily at 8:46 PM on October 9, 2022 [7 favorites]
This is lovely and it makes me feel better about people but at the same time well-meaning people will vote to ruin things for the rest of us because they also believe that’s good. Everyone believes they’re good.
posted by sjswitzer at 9:02 PM on October 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by sjswitzer at 9:02 PM on October 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
Coming from housing cooperatives, I have come to the belief that a collection of people will always identify /someone/ as the asshole, regardless of how bad they actually are, as a kind of societal role that must be filled. The asshole of the group may modify their behavior to lean into the role, or may successfully defy stereotype until the role is transferred to someone else. If the asshole leaves, a new asshole will be selected from the remaining people.
(There may be deep evolutionary reasons for this group behaviour, as the asshole in ancient times would presumably move to a new community and thus help mix up genes.)
Recognizing this as a natural social dynamic can definitely help take the edge off of it, though. One housing cooperative I know had an explicit 'slacker' role for work parties, which would be rotated around, for example.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:39 PM on October 9, 2022 [21 favorites]
(There may be deep evolutionary reasons for this group behaviour, as the asshole in ancient times would presumably move to a new community and thus help mix up genes.)
Recognizing this as a natural social dynamic can definitely help take the edge off of it, though. One housing cooperative I know had an explicit 'slacker' role for work parties, which would be rotated around, for example.
posted by kaibutsu at 9:39 PM on October 9, 2022 [21 favorites]
Coming from housing cooperatives, I have come to the belief that a collection of people will always identify /someone/ as the asshole, regardless of how bad they actually are, as a kind of societal role that must be filled.
In my friend circle we have a formally designated scapegoat, a role assigned on a rotating basis so e.g. if this is the fifteenth of the month then it's Dave's fault. The scapegoat is not expected to do anything to fix whatever horrible mess they're being blamed for, merely accept with good grace that it is their fault.
This works well.
Also quite pleasing to find out that I have a sunnier view of humanity than some; I've always put the consistent-asshole percentage at about 5 rather than 10. On the other hand, I'm also pretty sure that every human who has ever lived has spent about 5% of our waking hours been an asshole so maybe that all squares up.
posted by flabdablet at 10:10 PM on October 9, 2022 [21 favorites]
In my friend circle we have a formally designated scapegoat, a role assigned on a rotating basis so e.g. if this is the fifteenth of the month then it's Dave's fault. The scapegoat is not expected to do anything to fix whatever horrible mess they're being blamed for, merely accept with good grace that it is their fault.
This works well.
Also quite pleasing to find out that I have a sunnier view of humanity than some; I've always put the consistent-asshole percentage at about 5 rather than 10. On the other hand, I'm also pretty sure that every human who has ever lived has spent about 5% of our waking hours been an asshole so maybe that all squares up.
posted by flabdablet at 10:10 PM on October 9, 2022 [21 favorites]
I like the idea of rotating scapegoat instead of the way that concept usually operates, i.e. Scapegoat 4 Lyfe.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:22 PM on October 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:22 PM on October 9, 2022 [4 favorites]
This reminds me of the ridiculous hoary urban myth/story...
There's a couple at a party in a group chatting about their pets. The group are discussing how much their dogs and cats love them, and the couple say "even our snake loves us!" The group is disbelieving so they explain that their python really loves to hang out with them. In fact they have its tank in their bedroom and sometimes at night they wake up to find the python having escaped its tank, laid in the bed alongside them!
At this, a woman who has over heard this conversation interrupts "Excuse me", she says, "I'm a vet and you need to get that python out of your room immediately". "But why?!" the shocked couple reply. "Because it's not that the python wants to sleep next to you. It's measuring you. To check if it can eat you yet".
(I'm sure this is impossible/inaccurate/mean to snakes etc, but I've heard it retold many times and it makes me laugh every time)
posted by Augenblick at 11:30 PM on October 9, 2022 [7 favorites]
There's a couple at a party in a group chatting about their pets. The group are discussing how much their dogs and cats love them, and the couple say "even our snake loves us!" The group is disbelieving so they explain that their python really loves to hang out with them. In fact they have its tank in their bedroom and sometimes at night they wake up to find the python having escaped its tank, laid in the bed alongside them!
At this, a woman who has over heard this conversation interrupts "Excuse me", she says, "I'm a vet and you need to get that python out of your room immediately". "But why?!" the shocked couple reply. "Because it's not that the python wants to sleep next to you. It's measuring you. To check if it can eat you yet".
(I'm sure this is impossible/inaccurate/mean to snakes etc, but I've heard it retold many times and it makes me laugh every time)
posted by Augenblick at 11:30 PM on October 9, 2022 [7 favorites]
excuse me pythons measure width not length
posted by away for regrooving at 11:41 PM on October 9, 2022 [7 favorites]
posted by away for regrooving at 11:41 PM on October 9, 2022 [7 favorites]
In our neighborhood forum someone posted a picture of a possum in her backyard, and asked what it was and if she should be worried about it--definitely hinting that she thought it was some kind of mutant rat. Because it was a neighborhood forum, everyone was very nice and explained about possums and all the good things about them.
(My son, who's into opossums, would correct me and say that the possum is technically a different animal, living in Australia, and that, strangely, opossum is spelled differently but pronounced the same way. I did some research and opossum and possum are both used enough that they are probably both correct for both the American and the Australian animals--English being a language guided more by use than by rules).
posted by eye of newt at 1:08 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
(My son, who's into opossums, would correct me and say that the possum is technically a different animal, living in Australia, and that, strangely, opossum is spelled differently but pronounced the same way. I did some research and opossum and possum are both used enough that they are probably both correct for both the American and the Australian animals--English being a language guided more by use than by rules).
posted by eye of newt at 1:08 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
Pythons would measure volume and poor design (bad joke).
I would go higher and 95% of people are decent. If you have more than a handful of people you hate or want to dance on the grave of.... surprise, you are in the 5% of the bad people.
Life is so much better when you assume people are decent even if different. The more you do not accept others is proportional to how far you end up in the 10% or 5% of not decent people worthy of trust.
posted by zengargoyle at 1:10 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
I would go higher and 95% of people are decent. If you have more than a handful of people you hate or want to dance on the grave of.... surprise, you are in the 5% of the bad people.
Life is so much better when you assume people are decent even if different. The more you do not accept others is proportional to how far you end up in the 10% or 5% of not decent people worthy of trust.
posted by zengargoyle at 1:10 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
I’m a bit envious of the people whose take-home message here is “only 10% of people are assholes.” Mine is “only 20% of people get a joke.”
posted by babelfish at 2:01 AM on October 10, 2022 [12 favorites]
posted by babelfish at 2:01 AM on October 10, 2022 [12 favorites]
this tracks with my intuition that the rate of assholes in the world is about 10%
She did not give numbers, but it also tracks with the Universal Laws of Human Stupidity, in that many people (more than you might estimate) did not get the joke.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:31 AM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
She did not give numbers, but it also tracks with the Universal Laws of Human Stupidity, in that many people (more than you might estimate) did not get the joke.
posted by Meatbomb at 3:31 AM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Oh and sorry, I was not explicit - the cynic in me rejects the "people are nice" conclusion and jumps ahead to "people are stupid".
posted by Meatbomb at 3:35 AM on October 10, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Meatbomb at 3:35 AM on October 10, 2022 [5 favorites]
This tracks with my intuition that the rate of assholes in the world is about 10% - enough so that, in small groups, and even in somewhat larger ones, you can have no assholes, but eventually someone's going to ruin everything for everyone else. I seem to recall it's about the same rate of people making false or misleading police reports.
Not to derail, but I wanted to point out that "10% of people make false police reports," "10% of people filing police reports are doing so falsely," and "10% of police reports are false" are all different claims. The first would leave me pretty despondent about the state of people, but the last one leaves me pretty optimistic, as I’d wager that most of the false ones are going to be filed by a small number of people. In other words I’m betting that the true asshole proportion is quite a bit smaller than 10%.
On the flip side, though, I like flabdablet’s counter that all or most of us have it in us to be the asshole some of the time. It’s been my turn this year, I’m Grinch-level pissy.
kaibutsu’s point about the universality of the scapegoat role is well taken. Brings into mind an uncomfortable conversation I once had with someone who used to be a school psychologist, about what goes on in a classroom.
posted by eirias at 4:00 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
Not to derail, but I wanted to point out that "10% of people make false police reports," "10% of people filing police reports are doing so falsely," and "10% of police reports are false" are all different claims. The first would leave me pretty despondent about the state of people, but the last one leaves me pretty optimistic, as I’d wager that most of the false ones are going to be filed by a small number of people. In other words I’m betting that the true asshole proportion is quite a bit smaller than 10%.
On the flip side, though, I like flabdablet’s counter that all or most of us have it in us to be the asshole some of the time. It’s been my turn this year, I’m Grinch-level pissy.
kaibutsu’s point about the universality of the scapegoat role is well taken. Brings into mind an uncomfortable conversation I once had with someone who used to be a school psychologist, about what goes on in a classroom.
posted by eirias at 4:00 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
If we take that 10% of people are bad. And 20% of people "don't get the joke". There's this margin area... The 10% who are bad get the joke leaves 10% of the decent people who get the joke. Margins. On the other hand if none of the 10% bad get the joke, it still leaves only 20% of the decent that get the joke and OMG 70% of decent people who don't get the joke but are otherwise decent.. At the best, 20% of people who get the joke will be decent, at the worst, 10% of the decent people will get the joke and 100% of the non-decent people will get the joke. Splitting the difference, taking the middle path is probably best. Going too far in either direction is echo chamber and there is no communication. The 10% have the advantage here. The other 90% are at a disadvantage because they can keep things in the 90% away from the 10%.
Plug in to your calculus the percentage of other vs the percentage of amicable to humourous mind manipulation.
There's a game theory calculus in there. It's better to along the margin to go like 60/40 decent/bad. It's better than 50/50 for sanity, but 100% is null proposition "preaching to the choir" and makes no change at all.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:12 AM on October 10, 2022
Plug in to your calculus the percentage of other vs the percentage of amicable to humourous mind manipulation.
There's a game theory calculus in there. It's better to along the margin to go like 60/40 decent/bad. It's better than 50/50 for sanity, but 100% is null proposition "preaching to the choir" and makes no change at all.
posted by zengargoyle at 4:12 AM on October 10, 2022
@kaibutsu: “… the asshole, regardless of how bad they actually are, as a kind of societal role that must be filled.”
I think these people give assholes a bad name. My neighbor drags his chair around his upstairs room at 0100, 0230, 0430 like clockwork every night. Wakes me up. Drops things like a clutz. But really he’s a slob, who is anti social and miserable human being. A mental state so skewed from average empathy, that antagonistic behaviors a seem to be acceptable result of his struggles.
Don’t see where shit or ass or assholes come into this.
My2c
posted by xtian at 4:52 AM on October 10, 2022
I think these people give assholes a bad name. My neighbor drags his chair around his upstairs room at 0100, 0230, 0430 like clockwork every night. Wakes me up. Drops things like a clutz. But really he’s a slob, who is anti social and miserable human being. A mental state so skewed from average empathy, that antagonistic behaviors a seem to be acceptable result of his struggles.
Don’t see where shit or ass or assholes come into this.
My2c
posted by xtian at 4:52 AM on October 10, 2022
20% of Americans who identify as “vegetarian” report eating chicken once a week. 20% of Americans who identify as “atheists” report belief in a higher power. I suspect 20% of Americans don’t know what words mean.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:56 AM on October 10, 2022 [17 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:56 AM on October 10, 2022 [17 favorites]
Brings into mind an uncomfortable conversation I once had with someone who used to be a school psychologist, about what goes on in a classroom.
I think the need to have somebody else to blame is a human universal and rather than paying what can only ever be lip service to trying to train kids out of it I would love to see the rotating scapegoat principle tried out in a school setting, preferably at multiple levels and with the full support of the school board.
I would expect any teacher who tried it unilaterally to find themselves rapidly scapegoated on a not even slightly rotational basis.
posted by flabdablet at 5:24 AM on October 10, 2022
I think the need to have somebody else to blame is a human universal and rather than paying what can only ever be lip service to trying to train kids out of it I would love to see the rotating scapegoat principle tried out in a school setting, preferably at multiple levels and with the full support of the school board.
I would expect any teacher who tried it unilaterally to find themselves rapidly scapegoated on a not even slightly rotational basis.
posted by flabdablet at 5:24 AM on October 10, 2022
"Rotating scapegoat principle" presumably operating along the same lines as "We all share housework: Janice does all the cleaning, Maureen does the cooking and I did the washing up a few days ago". There are always some people who carry more than their fair share.
But you're right, it's just a natural human universal, and we should let it lie the way we do with class, racism, sexism and all those other natural human universals.
posted by Grangousier at 5:53 AM on October 10, 2022
But you're right, it's just a natural human universal, and we should let it lie the way we do with class, racism, sexism and all those other natural human universals.
posted by Grangousier at 5:53 AM on October 10, 2022
Housing co-ops are a place where a sort of radical equality is, in theory, possible. In more organic settings, this type of Rawlsian setup of "let’s all agree on the social structure of the world as equals and then live in it" is not really credible to me. In schools, some people are adults and some are small children, some are rich and some are poor, some are white and some are black and some are school resource officers. How I would expect this to work out in a general sense is left as an exercise for the reader. My friend who made this observation was disturbed enough by the way it all played out that she left the field not long after entering it (and she is now hands down my most treasured, most collaborative, and most resilient colleague — so her abandoning a profession as functionally hopeless says rather a lot to me).
posted by eirias at 5:55 AM on October 10, 2022
posted by eirias at 5:55 AM on October 10, 2022
There are always some people who carry more than their fair share.
Right, and that rapidly becomes oppressive, which is exactly why formally rotated scapegoating on a strictly round-robin basis works so well. If it's all my fault today it will all be Bob's fault tomorrow, Janice's the day after that and then Maureen's and so forth. Whenever somebody new joins the group, it was all their fault yesterday so they get as much time as possible to get used to how it works.
It's not like any of us actually has to do anything to be scapegoated by everybody else; there's no analog to the huge pile of filthy dishes piling up because Jeremy always skives off kitchen duty. When his day comes around, everything is automatically his fault and that's just the way it is.
I mean, he can argue about it if he wants but it's not going to convince anybody, so he might as well just apologize with good grace and move on. All of us always know where we stand and nobody has to carry an unfair weight of blame. It's good.
Another related arrangement that works really well is for everybody to have a designated burp, fart and sneeze partner, so whenever somebody burps, farts or sneezes it's on their partner to apologize.
posted by flabdablet at 6:12 AM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Right, and that rapidly becomes oppressive, which is exactly why formally rotated scapegoating on a strictly round-robin basis works so well. If it's all my fault today it will all be Bob's fault tomorrow, Janice's the day after that and then Maureen's and so forth. Whenever somebody new joins the group, it was all their fault yesterday so they get as much time as possible to get used to how it works.
It's not like any of us actually has to do anything to be scapegoated by everybody else; there's no analog to the huge pile of filthy dishes piling up because Jeremy always skives off kitchen duty. When his day comes around, everything is automatically his fault and that's just the way it is.
I mean, he can argue about it if he wants but it's not going to convince anybody, so he might as well just apologize with good grace and move on. All of us always know where we stand and nobody has to carry an unfair weight of blame. It's good.
Another related arrangement that works really well is for everybody to have a designated burp, fart and sneeze partner, so whenever somebody burps, farts or sneezes it's on their partner to apologize.
posted by flabdablet at 6:12 AM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Pythons would measure volume and poor design (bad joke).
Does "Python would measure volume and indentation" make the joke any better?
posted by clawsoon at 6:25 AM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Does "Python would measure volume and indentation" make the joke any better?
posted by clawsoon at 6:25 AM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
we should let it lie the way we do with class, racism, sexism and all those other natural human universals.
I'd rather we acknowledged that we all respond to all of those othering cues and that with the best will in the world we can't actually work around that 100% reliably. Which is not to say we shouldn't try - of course we should try - but we should also forgive ourselves and each other for the 5% of the time when trying isn't enough.
The idea that anybody is intrinsically better than anybody else is one that's always struck me as absurd. At some level we are all restless monkeys in tall hats and I would rather find ways for people to laugh in the face of that than continue being crushed by it. I think social stratification would probably have a much tougher time persisting if interpersonal games rooted in explicit mockery of its driving influences became more widely practised.
posted by flabdablet at 6:33 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
I'd rather we acknowledged that we all respond to all of those othering cues and that with the best will in the world we can't actually work around that 100% reliably. Which is not to say we shouldn't try - of course we should try - but we should also forgive ourselves and each other for the 5% of the time when trying isn't enough.
The idea that anybody is intrinsically better than anybody else is one that's always struck me as absurd. At some level we are all restless monkeys in tall hats and I would rather find ways for people to laugh in the face of that than continue being crushed by it. I think social stratification would probably have a much tougher time persisting if interpersonal games rooted in explicit mockery of its driving influences became more widely practised.
posted by flabdablet at 6:33 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
and rather than paying what can only ever be lip service to trying to train kids out of it I would love to see the rotating scapegoat principle tried out in a school setting, preferably at multiple levels and with the full support of the school board.
My sister, who works as an educational assistant, has noticed that teachers always seem to pick a kid or two to be the kid in that class who they don't like and complain about. Most of the time the chosen child is who you'd expect - from a poorer family, less socially and academically skilled - but she noticed that the one teacher who'd grown up a bit rougher would routinely take a dislike to a well-off high achiever or two in her class.
She hypothesized that part of the reason was to give the teachers some reason other than themselves for why they weren't as happy as they wanted to be or as good at their job as they thought they were.
Corporate settings provide a handy structural mechanism for mutual scapegoating: The leadership is a bunch of clueless assholes, which is why we're not as good as we could be, and the workers are a bunch of lazy naysayers, which is why we're not as good as we could be.
posted by clawsoon at 6:36 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
My sister, who works as an educational assistant, has noticed that teachers always seem to pick a kid or two to be the kid in that class who they don't like and complain about. Most of the time the chosen child is who you'd expect - from a poorer family, less socially and academically skilled - but she noticed that the one teacher who'd grown up a bit rougher would routinely take a dislike to a well-off high achiever or two in her class.
She hypothesized that part of the reason was to give the teachers some reason other than themselves for why they weren't as happy as they wanted to be or as good at their job as they thought they were.
Corporate settings provide a handy structural mechanism for mutual scapegoating: The leadership is a bunch of clueless assholes, which is why we're not as good as we could be, and the workers are a bunch of lazy naysayers, which is why we're not as good as we could be.
posted by clawsoon at 6:36 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
teachers always seem to pick a kid or two to be the kid in that case who they don't like and complain about
And it's not just teachers either. It's particularly oppressive when teachers do do it because of the manifest power differential involved, but even without a structural power differential in place it's super common for some poor unfortunate to get designated as a universal target and that's a role that way too often sticks with them for years.
Making an absurd but explicit game out of that is never going to stop it happening completely, but it might well give enough of the bystanders enough of a perspective on it to blunt the worst excesses of it.
I've worked in Australian primary schools as an IT technician so I've had an up close view of a lot of the work that they now do on anti-bullying and emotional literacy, and it's good work and it has good effects and helping kids learn to resist their own tendency to scapegoat the Other is vital and necessary and in no way do I seek to undermine that. But as somebody who was fat and a bit nerdy from a very early age I've also been the Designated Scapegoat amongst my little peers, and it would have been a real relief to have had that happen one day in thirty rather than every day without letup.
posted by flabdablet at 6:51 AM on October 10, 2022
And it's not just teachers either. It's particularly oppressive when teachers do do it because of the manifest power differential involved, but even without a structural power differential in place it's super common for some poor unfortunate to get designated as a universal target and that's a role that way too often sticks with them for years.
Making an absurd but explicit game out of that is never going to stop it happening completely, but it might well give enough of the bystanders enough of a perspective on it to blunt the worst excesses of it.
I've worked in Australian primary schools as an IT technician so I've had an up close view of a lot of the work that they now do on anti-bullying and emotional literacy, and it's good work and it has good effects and helping kids learn to resist their own tendency to scapegoat the Other is vital and necessary and in no way do I seek to undermine that. But as somebody who was fat and a bit nerdy from a very early age I've also been the Designated Scapegoat amongst my little peers, and it would have been a real relief to have had that happen one day in thirty rather than every day without letup.
posted by flabdablet at 6:51 AM on October 10, 2022
Nonono Python is dynamically-typed.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:11 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by aspersioncast at 7:11 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
I feel like opossums actually don’t get rabies.
They generally don't! It's thought that the opossums' low body temperature makes it difficult for the rabies virus to survive.
And here's where my pedantic nature comes out: the pictures that Jessica used are of opossums, which are different from possums. They are not the same animal. Cool, huh?
And opossums are really cool little critters! They eat all kinds of insects like cockroaches, crickets, beetles, etc. They even catch and eat rats and mice, and are carrion eaters. They like over-ripe fruit, and by eating the fruit that would normally rot on the trees or the ground, they reduce the amount of vermin in an area.
Signed,
Your Local Possum Appreciator
posted by cooker girl at 7:25 AM on October 10, 2022 [5 favorites]
They generally don't! It's thought that the opossums' low body temperature makes it difficult for the rabies virus to survive.
And here's where my pedantic nature comes out: the pictures that Jessica used are of opossums, which are different from possums. They are not the same animal. Cool, huh?
And opossums are really cool little critters! They eat all kinds of insects like cockroaches, crickets, beetles, etc. They even catch and eat rats and mice, and are carrion eaters. They like over-ripe fruit, and by eating the fruit that would normally rot on the trees or the ground, they reduce the amount of vermin in an area.
Signed,
Your Local Possum Appreciator
posted by cooker girl at 7:25 AM on October 10, 2022 [5 favorites]
Pythons would measure volume and poor design (bad joke).
I think of the disappointed python that the adults aren't growing quite quickly enough to be perfect eatin' size, but she's feeling patient, so she'll wait....
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:02 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I think of the disappointed python that the adults aren't growing quite quickly enough to be perfect eatin' size, but she's feeling patient, so she'll wait....
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:02 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
The idea that "opossum" and "possum" specifically refer to different animals isn't universally accepted. (The American and Australian marsupials are indeed different, but the corresponding splitting of the words' definitions is not universal in practice.) My undergraduate ecology professor, a mammalogist, taught that they are synonyms. Merriam-Webster acknowledges the distinction that some draw, but notes that in practice both terms are used for both the American and Australian animals, and also notes that the use of both words in English to refer to the American opossum dates to the 1610s, long before James Cook's exploration of Australia. I suspect, though don't have direct evidence to support, that the notion that "opossum" specifically and properly refers to American didelphid marsupials, while "possum" properly refers to Australian phalangerid marsupials, is a relatively recent creation of pedants like us.
posted by biogeo at 8:22 AM on October 10, 2022 [10 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 8:22 AM on October 10, 2022 [10 favorites]
That's as may be, biogeo, but my daughter, a zoologist, is very firm in the distiction.
I don't know where she gets her pedantic nature....
posted by cooker girl at 8:25 AM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
I don't know where she gets her pedantic nature....
posted by cooker girl at 8:25 AM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Here's the video of the "project" (with pix of poster) that Williamson posted in 2008
posted by davidmsc at 8:52 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by davidmsc at 8:52 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I’m a bit envious of the people whose take-home message here is “only 10% of people are assholes.” Mine is “only 20% of people get a joke.”
I would presume that most people who see the poster understand it is a joke. These people probably called in at far lower rates than people who didn’t get the joke. If you know the poster is a joke, there’s no real reason to call the number. But, I guess I’m an optimist.
posted by snofoam at 8:57 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
I would presume that most people who see the poster understand it is a joke. These people probably called in at far lower rates than people who didn’t get the joke. If you know the poster is a joke, there’s no real reason to call the number. But, I guess I’m an optimist.
posted by snofoam at 8:57 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
Williamson says about 70% of callers were well intentioned, 20% wanted to join in the lark, and 10% took the poster as an invitation to be awful, who were "mean and not in on the joke". The fourth category is all the folks who saw the poster and did not call.
That vast muddled mass of folks who witnessed and let the moment pass. I remember the OK toll-free number 1-800-I-FEEL-OK that might walk through a whole binary Personality Inventory test. Or other randomness. I would call it from the campus emergency kiosks, which would turn into giant speakerphones. And people would totally start doing the test. Or get mad and hang up.
posted by zenon at 9:14 AM on October 10, 2022
That vast muddled mass of folks who witnessed and let the moment pass. I remember the OK toll-free number 1-800-I-FEEL-OK that might walk through a whole binary Personality Inventory test. Or other randomness. I would call it from the campus emergency kiosks, which would turn into giant speakerphones. And people would totally start doing the test. Or get mad and hang up.
posted by zenon at 9:14 AM on October 10, 2022
Writing in a formal register is less likely to use "possum" for the common name of the American mammal, because it's colloquial for that, while the Australian ones borrowed their common name pre-shortened (never had an Algonquian name...) This is an observation about usage.
Going past register to state a distinction in Actual Proper Meaning is not supported by the words' usage or history. Buiuut that's how it goes, Rules that say common usage is wrong make it nice and common to find people to "well actually" at.
I'll blame Grammarly for this rule.
(Grammarly for designated scapegoat!)
posted by away for regrooving at 9:56 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
Going past register to state a distinction in Actual Proper Meaning is not supported by the words' usage or history. Buiuut that's how it goes, Rules that say common usage is wrong make it nice and common to find people to "well actually" at.
I'll blame Grammarly for this rule.
(Grammarly for designated scapegoat!)
posted by away for regrooving at 9:56 AM on October 10, 2022 [3 favorites]
in practice both terms are used for both the American and Australian animals
I've never once heard an Australian call a possum an opossum, so I suspect that this particular "in practice" is one of those "pint's a pound the world around" kind of deals where the world has East and West Coasts.
Grammarly for designated scapegoat!
They have an identifiable connection to the issues at hand, which given the sheer size of the Web's scapegoat roster makes it statistically quite unlikely to be their fault. I'm actually not sure which site everything's fault is today. Perhaps somebody could make a site that keeps track of that and stick it up in Projects.
posted by flabdablet at 10:05 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I've never once heard an Australian call a possum an opossum, so I suspect that this particular "in practice" is one of those "pint's a pound the world around" kind of deals where the world has East and West Coasts.
Grammarly for designated scapegoat!
They have an identifiable connection to the issues at hand, which given the sheer size of the Web's scapegoat roster makes it statistically quite unlikely to be their fault. I'm actually not sure which site everything's fault is today. Perhaps somebody could make a site that keeps track of that and stick it up in Projects.
posted by flabdablet at 10:05 AM on October 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm actually not sure which site everything's fault is today.
It's probably either a chan board or reddit.
posted by axiom at 10:44 AM on October 10, 2022
It's probably either a chan board or reddit.
posted by axiom at 10:44 AM on October 10, 2022
my intuition that the rate of assholes in the world is about 10%
I'm not sure of the percentage, but I believe that there are surprisingly few of them.
As evidence, I offer the following thought experiment: Think about the last time a famous person whom you despise as a genuine asshole passed away. Now consider all of the famous people whom you admire who have passed away since them. I believe that that ratio closely mirrors the ratio of assholes to awesome people.
As a pessimist and cynic, in my heart, I feel that the world is teeming with assholes upon whose graves I would happily dance -- but my brain knows that it's has been a quite while since any of them kicked the bucket.
posted by MrJM at 12:53 PM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'm not sure of the percentage, but I believe that there are surprisingly few of them.
As evidence, I offer the following thought experiment: Think about the last time a famous person whom you despise as a genuine asshole passed away. Now consider all of the famous people whom you admire who have passed away since them. I believe that that ratio closely mirrors the ratio of assholes to awesome people.
As a pessimist and cynic, in my heart, I feel that the world is teeming with assholes upon whose graves I would happily dance -- but my brain knows that it's has been a quite while since any of them kicked the bucket.
posted by MrJM at 12:53 PM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
Obligatory:
MetaFilter: which site everything's fault is today.
posted by biogeo at 12:54 PM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
MetaFilter: which site everything's fault is today.
posted by biogeo at 12:54 PM on October 10, 2022 [2 favorites]
The video linked by davidmsc has banjo frog sounds in it.
posted by amtho at 5:05 PM on October 10, 2022
posted by amtho at 5:05 PM on October 10, 2022
Apparently, possums eat lots of ticks? So, gross/yay?!
posted by kiblinger at 8:55 AM on October 11, 2022
posted by kiblinger at 8:55 AM on October 11, 2022
Oh wait sorry that study says the tick thing is not true, probably. Ignore me.
posted by kiblinger at 7:31 PM on October 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by kiblinger at 7:31 PM on October 11, 2022 [1 favorite]
That raises the possibility that ticks are apex predators.
posted by rhizome at 1:35 AM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by rhizome at 1:35 AM on October 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
This tracks with my intuition that the rate of assholes in the world is about 10% - enough so that, in small groups, and even in somewhat larger ones, you can have no assholes, but eventually someone's going to ruin everything for everyone else. I seem to recall it's about the same rate of people making false or misleading police reports.
I always think about this in terms of a one-to-many situation. If you're sitting on a plane, and there's one asshole, you have 200 people telling their friends "there was this asshole on the plane" and 1 person saying "literally everyone but me on the plane was great!"
It tends to make the numbers seem higher than they are, fortunately, but it doesn't fix the problem.
posted by hoborg at 9:44 AM on October 12, 2022
I always think about this in terms of a one-to-many situation. If you're sitting on a plane, and there's one asshole, you have 200 people telling their friends "there was this asshole on the plane" and 1 person saying "literally everyone but me on the plane was great!"
It tends to make the numbers seem higher than they are, fortunately, but it doesn't fix the problem.
posted by hoborg at 9:44 AM on October 12, 2022
Well, probably more commonly it's 200 people telling their friends "There was this asshole on the plane," and 1 person saying "Everyone else on that plane was an asshole!" But your point stands.
posted by biogeo at 2:31 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by biogeo at 2:31 PM on October 12, 2022 [2 favorites]
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posted by jenfullmoon at 6:01 PM on October 9, 2022 [5 favorites]