Last night I watched TV with my mother

[conuly]

We saw an episode of Divided, which I think is possibly the cruelest game show I've ever seen, but it has potential to be hilarious. It never gets old watching three strangers squabble over how to divide up a $90 dollar pot, and all the while the timer is running down and the money with it. Edit: To be clear, they must divide it up 60/30/10. They may not divide it up evenly.

Anyway, yesterday the four contestants can be summed up as: White woman (she's the one who got voted off), guy-in-suit, black woman, nerdy guy. Guy-in-suit was super obnoxious (at one point, he condescended to white woman, causing black woman to jump in and defend her in no uncertain terms), but they racked up quite a sizeable potential win.

And now it's time to divide it up, 60/30/10. As is typical, each player thinks they deserve the biggest share - and now both the men turn around and try to convince black woman (white woman having been kicked off) that she should take the smallest share. "After all, it's still a lot of money, better than getting nothing!"

After hearing half a minute of their smarmy bullshit on this (meanwhile, neither of them noticed, btw, that they both were giving themselves the large share, because "after all, better than getting nothing" doesn't apply to either of them), she gave up. She folded her arms and stood there and let the clock run down, and she was so in the right.

It must be a year or more since that episode was filmed, and to this day, I doubt either of the two male contestants understand that they were the reason she made that choice. But they were the reason. They were such jerks by the end that she was happy to let them walk away with nothing, and she was right to do so. I would've made the exact same choice. (Then again, I would've voted off guy-in-the-suit. The woman who was voted off said he wouldn't want to compromise at the end, and boy, she called it.)

There is some sort of feminist moral here, but I'm not sure how to sum it up.

********************

Broadband over 'wet string' tested for fun

A Roma Circus Makes a Home, and Builds Bridges, in Paris

Watch a Dondurma Vendor Trick Customers Before Handing Them Treats

The images and gifs from A Step-by-Step Guide to Drawing Syntax Trees, in a format where you can click to enlarge.

Scientists Discover Grass Species With Intriguing 'Salt And Vinegar' Chip Flavor

Bringing the lightsaber from Star Wars—the ultimate toy—to life

In marine mammals’ battle of the sexes, vaginal folds can make the difference

First the jury convicted this 19-year-old maid for stealing. Then they took up a collection to pay her fine. (I'm not sure what I think about this!)

Can You Prove Your Innocence Without DNA?

Why the #MeToo Movement Should Be Ready for a Backlash

More than 10,000 Interior employees say they were harassed or intimidated.

Facebook admits it poses mental health risk – but says using site more can help

Will Robots Take Our Children’s Jobs?

Climate Change, Disease and the Fall of Rome

Yet Another Group of Scientists Just Said We Are the Ones Screwing the Weather

Where a Life-Saving Needle Exchange Operates in the Shadow of the Law

While world watches North Korea, China builds in the South China Sea

China’s Crazy Plan to Keep Sand From Swallowing the World

Will Ukraine Be Hit by Yet Another Holiday Power-Grid Hack?

Responding to Trump, Turkey says it will open an embassy in East Jerusalem — in support of Palestinians

Veterans Charity Raises Millions to Help Those Who’ve Served, But Telemarketers Are Pocketing Most of It.

‘The Basic Grossness of Humans’

America Is Heading for an Unprecedented Constitutional Crisis

If Trump Fires Mueller, We Must Impeach

Welfare reform moving to center of Republican agenda

Team Trump Is Slashing Programs That Help Prisoners Adapt to Life on the Outside

US cities dedicate resources to international negotiations on migrants and refugees

Puerto Rico warns GOP tax bill would hit its already reeling economy

How debt-ridden refugees are being forced to return to a war zone

In Malaysia, religious concerns stall child-bride reform

Comments

[wpadmirer]

I have never seen that game show, but it sounds like something I would not enjoy. Good for that woman refusing to make a choice. I'd have done the same thing, too!

[conuly]

I actually do enjoy it in small doses, but that's because I love seeing them lose half their pot due to bickering over who gets the large share.

[rhoda_rants]

Whoa, that sounds fascinating! And indeed cruel. What in the world is the argument for not dividing it up equally? $90 splits three ways down the middle. Starting with 4 would be tricky, sure, but what is the deal there? I must be missing something. Anyway, good for her.

[conuly]

The argument is "that's the way the game is structured: either you all agree on who gets the most and the least, or you all get nothing."

That's just the way it is. You have to kick off one person in the middle, you have to divide up the cash at the end, and you have to divvy it up 60/30/10. Though one episode where they were literally dickering to death over a grand total of $75, one of them took a hit for the team and said "I'll take the low value, you two split it up this way, and when we're done, we'll all go out for a drink", which apparently is allowed under the rules.

[adafrog]

I hate that show because of the division. :( But ITA with you there.

[conuly]

I suppose it depends on how much you enjoy seeing people squabble themselves out of cash.

[adafrog]

Yeah, that would be a big zero. Glad you enjoy it, though.

[oracleofdoom]

I'm not quite understanding why people can't agree to equal shares in this game show. Other than just because they're entitled assholes.

[conuly]

They're not allowed. They have to split it 60/30/10, and the fourth person has to be kicked off.

[silailo]

Social media outlets like Facebook have definitely made me feel depressed, but it is mostly Facebook that makes me feel that way. I finally took it off my phone and only access it through my laptop, because I carry my phone around more than my laptop.

For me it's the negative social comparison, and it's hard to keep in mind that people mostly post the highlights of their lives on social media. But that doesn't stop me from comparing myself. If it's within my power to do something about it (like deleting my Facebook or limiting what I see), then I should do something, not expect Facebook to do anything because it's in their best interest to keep me coming back again and again.

[conuly]

The trouble is, FB is designed, intentionally or not, to be addictive. It's hard for you to "just do something" because, to your brain, it's not entirely within your power. (But anecdotally, once you kick that habit, apparently it's easy to stay kicked.)

[silailo]

Yes, certainly. My mom deleted her Facebook a while back, and she said that after a while she finally stopped wondering what was happening on Facebook. I often toy with the idea of deleting mine, but my addicted brain always finds excuses not to (I'll lose contact with certain people, I have a lot of history there, etc.)

[nodrog]

That's exactly my attitude toward LiveJournal, tho' it's slowly dying out:


               


- yet I have an enormous amount of time and labor invested in it!  I don't want to just delete all that…

So like Major Kong in Dr Strangelove, I'll probably ride it all the way down…

(frozen) Interesting links.

[nodrog]

        Among the principles and polices that have become entrenched at schools—and are now spilling out into the wider world—
        are the beliefs that accusers are virtually always telling the truth; that the urgency to take action is more important
        than fair procedures; that we shouldn’t make distinctions between criminal acts and boorishness; and that predatory male
        behavior is ubiquitous…


Not the wider world, pal.  The wider world - men and women alike! - recognize American women as spoiled, crazed pit vipers.

¡Buena suerta, gringas!

सौभाग्य, महिलाओं!

(frozen) Re: Interesting links.

[conuly]

So I'm all for different opinions, but I don't want people insulting me, or anybody else here. Thanks.

“We Almost Had Jet Packs on the Moon” - Vintage Space

[nodrog]

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/vintagespace/2017/09/28/we-almost-had-jet-packs-on-the-moon/#.WjaBU_CnHcs

Here is a feminist moral

[amaebi]

I think that those two men assumed bone-deep, as USian males are typically trained to do, that they get to sit in judgment on the lesser beings who are women, and that the rules they accept/establish/defend are not human-created institutions but The Shape Of the Whole Universe Can't You See? And then got surprised that they could propose and the woman dispose-in-a-bin.

Re: Here is a feminist moral

[conuly]

That could be it. For crying out loud, the comment that got Suit Guy rebuked was calling the woman's opinion "adorable". You can shudder now.

Re: Here is a feminist moral

[amaebi]

*shudder*

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

"There is some sort of feminist moral here, but I'm not sure how to sum it up."

'Gambling is for losers' isn't specifically feminist, but it certainly seems to apply here.

[conuly]

I don't think the game show counts as gambling, exactly, even though "gamble" is, of course, the frequentative of "game". I mean, they didn't spend any money to be on the show, did they?

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Well, that's a good point; none of them actually lost anything but the game itself.

I have to wonder why none of these Hopeful Contestants ever hit on the seemingly-obvious solution of running their own little game of chance and agreeing to abide by the results. Either rock/paper/scissors or 'guess the number between 1-100' would work fine - since there's three of them, they'd have do elimination-trials to rank themselves, but that's no difficulty.

Heh, I used to use 'guess-the-number' to assign chores to the kids I looked after. I'd write the number down, each would try to guess it; the one who was closest got first pick of which room to clean; second got second pick; last got what was left. (That band of children all had to be working in separate rooms, else they did nothing but bicker.) Nobody could whine "It's not fairrrr!" that way, because hey, they guessed their numbers, and they chose their chores. There's nothing fairer than the 'luck of the draw.'

[conuly]

It's possible that on some episodes, they do divvy it up using tricks like rock-paper-scissors. But the ones who are cooperative enough to do that are usually cooperative enough to just say "Fine, I'll cop to deserving the lowest" if that's the case.