RL Anger

[mietze]

I already sent an email to the chair, 2nd vice chair (I’m the 1st vice chair), and our membership person who checks people in. No we don’t have security as in protection people at the meeting, we are a local political org, so this is like laypeople plus city/county/state legislature officers plus school boards and other municipal candidates.

[mietze]

If he shows up again I will probably resign (not worth potentially endangering others) and apply for a restraining order. I’m reluctant to do that now because of the danger in doing so.

[surreality]

@mietze If there's someone you can talk to regarding a restraining order, please start that process as soon as you can. I know that it is scary, but the more dangerous thing, ultimately, is that they don't have a record of who he is and what he's doing.

It makes it much, much more likely that these things that may seem 'small' to an officer taking a first call if he does something like show up out of the blue again are an escalation and continued unwelcome pursuit -- it will make that very obvious, because 'stay away' will be unquestioningly clear, and him just showing up will far more likely result in him being prevented from showing up again.

[Thenomain]

I know I'm behind the curve on this. I know I've been behind the curve on this for as long as I could manage, but Windows pushed the issue on me today, and oh my god, the new Skype makes me want to dig up Bill Gates' corpse and yell at it.

It doesn't matter that he's not dead yet, I can wait.

[surreality]

@thenomain When the phone updated to the new one, I felt exactly the same way. More clutter, less useful info. At least there's a dark screen version, but it is so not worth the trade-off.

[Autumn]

@mietze I know you probably have already done so (or are in the process of doing so), but in addition to talking to the police and getting a restraining order (and you absolutely should get one), please take whatever steps you can for your own personal security. Call a local crisis center and ask for their recommendations. Self-protection classes, an alarm system, pepper spray, whatever you feel able to do and can afford to do. Take advantage of every resource available.

It sucks so, so much to have to deal with this. Stay safe.

[DownWithOPP]

@mietze said in RL Anger:

I will probably resign (not worth potentially endangering others)

Do not do this. Doing so only isolates you further from others and leaves him more available time to get at you. Right now, your job gives you a few hours where you have the protection of security. If you're okay with your job, stick with it - but do go ahead and get the first police report if you haven't yet so that you may set a history of actions you have taken that will help with any future restraining orders.

[Cupcake]

@mietze Don't be afraid to take advantage of your friends as a resource to help you deal with this.

[Auspice]

@surreality said in RL Anger:

@thenomain When the phone updated to the new one, I felt exactly the same way. More clutter, less useful info. At least there's a dark screen version, but it is so not worth the trade-off.

Mac Skype is still the same. Thank god.

But yeah, the phone one is worse than the new Windows version. I had to log into Skype on my phone one day and just... so much rage.

[Sunny]

@mietze Everyone looooooves to tell you what to do in a situation like this (obviously). There's lots of "this is what you should do" pretty much everywhere you turn the moment you indicate there's something like this going on. What I will say is that the victim's advocate for my local police was, out of everyone and everything, the ONLY person with advice that ACTUALLY helped. They have professional training in matching up situations with the right resources and steps to take, rather than just throwing things at the wall until something sticks.

ETA: I will add for the other folks reading this, sometimes it IS okay to let the offender "win" by walking away and letting them have their way and not fighting, because safety/survival is a more important goal than the principle of the matter. I was instructed to let several of my activities go because it was not worth putting myself in danger over. It was recommended I find a different job, because my ex husband knew where I worked and had displayed a willingness to show up there.

[Auspice]

One of my projects for work is supporting ebook software (specifically a platform of interactive ebooks that primarily offers medical texts and other textbooks).

This is an example of a type of email I see multiple times a day:
'I am trying to redeem a code and it does not work!, is a new book the I got a week ago.'

No code. No title of the book. Just that.

And about half of these people will, when I have to push back for info, cry about it 'taking so long' (we manage to reply to most people within 24 hours) or 'being so difficult.'

More fun: 9 times out of 10, they're just ignoring the place on the page the code is on that says 'Go to this specific link to redeem your book.'

[Arkandel]

I would have put this in the Basketball thread but it's too good and too... wtf.

So, Boston point guard Kyrie Irving believes the Earth is flat. There are some real gems in this article.

An little taste:

"The whole intent behind it wasn’t to bash science and be seen as this insane individual. When I started actually doing research on my own and figuring out that there is no real picture of Earth... the intent was for people to open up and do their own research."

And of course

"Why is it that the footprints that they saved - What’s his name? Neil Armstrong? I don’t even know - Why is it that the steps, in terms of the pictures that they say he stepped on, why do they look completely different than the [boots] that are actually in the museum that he walked with?""

I guess it's not as bad as the Moon deniers. Note those aren't Moon landing deniers; they think the literal Moon does not exist.

[Auspice]

@arkandel said in RL Anger:

I guess it's not as bad as the Moon deniers.

And then you have the gravity deniers, too.

[Arkandel]

@auspice Ah, yes, the people who think the Earth is essentially a flat elevator always moving upwards (and at an accelerated pace, of course) which accounts for why we don't just float into space.

Awesome.

[Ghost]

@Arkandel Siiiiiiiiiiigh.

The worst part about this, is that his job involves using gravity and physics with a round ball.

He holds in his hands, daily, a physical representation of the way spin, rotation, and gravity have the natural inclination to create spheres.

[Arkandel]

@ghost

[Auspice]

@arkandel said in RL Anger:

@auspice Ah, yes, the people who think the Earth is essentially a flat elevator always moving upwards (and at an accelerated pace, of course) which accounts for why we don't just float into space.

Awesome.

The other explanation I've seen is that everything is just 'too heavy' to float and that's why birds, bees, butterflies, etc. can 'fly.' They're light enough.

At least with the flat earthers, they're just sort of adorably dumb. 'Well if I stare at the horizon it looks flat!!!!111'

The gravity deniers are a new level of insane in my book.

[Arkandel]

@auspice What bugs me is that every time I get into one of those debates I start coming up with logical arguments ("so why if you are on a plane and you keep flying you don't ever reach the end of the Earth?" "if butterflies are that light why do they go down again when they stop flapping their wings?"), which is useless because it's not really something anyone will be convinced by.

Plus there are always those folks... I forget what they're called, the kind who claim they just know things and thus science only gets in their way?

[Misadventure]

Don't engage. Just tell them to stop spreading their particular brand of stupidity.

[Arkandel]

On a way more serious issue, what the fuck has been happening in Hollywood? Dustin Hoffman is now apologising for sexual assaults he 'may have' committed?

Damn. I mean I figured things weren't great in that industry but damn.