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Heard of the Greater Internet $^@%#!* Theory? Here's a perfect example.

Not many people will admit to being racist ... if their name is attached to it.

How would you feel if you read "Bash that bitch's head in," and knew that the head they were talking about bashing was yours? Melissa Melendez says it was "disheartening." That's an understatement.

In meatspace, aka IRL, aka the physical world, it's pretty uncommon for people to just stand up and publicly state, "I want to bash that bitch's head in." You walk around in life, feeling like you don't really know that many blatantly racist people ... but in an anonymous forum, you might see something like:



There's a name for this. Sociologists call it theOnline Disinhibition Effect. Penny Arcade more colorfully (and accurately) coined the phrase "The Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory." It's an observable phenomenon.

Basic principle: When we know no one can see us, our worst selves come out.

The whole story is ... I mean, you've got to hear it to believe it. But here's the gist:

Melissa Melendez went to Colgate on scholarship. She'd never been in such a homogeneous place before. She grew up in the Bronx, where she hung out with Dominicans, Puerto Ricans (like her family), West Indians, all kinds of people. She was a bit of a novelty to her classmates, too.

They asked her all kinds of questions:

"Do you know JLo?" "How many baby daddies does your mom have?" And my favorite:

She wasn't the only one.

Other minority students experienced constant reminders that they didn't belong. They staged a sit-in to draw attention to the racism on their campus. They spent a whole day telling their personal stories.

And at first, they thought they'd won.

The administration agreed to make some changes, including a focus on diversity in hiring and recruitment.

Online, though, things looked different.

Students at Colgate, as at many colleges, use Yik Yak to post anonymously about what's going on. They started posting a response to the protest that was, well, crazy.

They had no idea who posted the hateful comments and threats.

The students who organized the sit-in started going places only in groups because they were concerned for their safety.

Melissa's friend Charity, who was also involved with the sit-in, said that she wondered all day long about every person she met. "I think, 'Who posted that terrible thing on Yik Yak? Are they in my classes? Are they my friends? Do I hang out with them at parties? Is that the person who said, “Black girls are hot, just not at Colgate"?'"

Imagine how that would affect your everyday interactions.

What if you thought maybe your lab partner was the person who responded to the sit-in by posting:

Geoff Holm, a biology professor, asked the faculty to join him in a “Yik Yak Take Back."

He asked them to post whatever they felt like on the site — congratulations for a student who got into a great med school, taunting about upcoming tough exams, dad jokes. The one rule: They had to sign their names.

In the words of "Reply All" host Alex Goldman:

The crazy thing is, it kind of worked.

It disrupted this pile of negativity. It made the student protesters feel safer and less alone. Just having someone speak up made a huge difference.

Check out the full episode here:


Community

How to end hunger, according to the people who face it daily

Here’s what people facing food insecurity want you to know about solving the hunger problem in America

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Even though America is the world’s wealthiest nation, about 1 in 6 of our neighbors turned to food banks and community programs in order to feed themselves and their families last year. Think about it: More than 9 million children faced hunger in 2021 (1 in 8 children).

In order to solve a problem, we must first understand it. Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, released its second annual Elevating Voices: Insights Report and turned to the experts—people experiencing hunger—to find out how this issue can be solved once and for all.

Here are the four most important things people facing hunger want you to know.

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Pets

Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

Family accidentally brings wrong dog home but their cats knew

It's not a secret that nearly all golden retrievers are identical. Honestly, magic has to be involved for owners to know which one belongs to them when more than one golden retriever is around. Seriously, how do they all seem have the same face? It's like someone fell asleep on the copy machine when they were being created.

Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

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All images courtesy Lesley Cerwin

A 12-year-old student wrote Costco's CEO asking for help.

Imagine your 12-year-old son is helping take part in his school’s Valentine’s Day fundraiser. You’d probably be proud and encouraged at the way he’s getting involved and doing something good, right?

Now imagine, as part of that effort, he decided to email the CEO of Costco, one of the most beloved big box retailers in the world. Well, that’s cute, right? But what if he told you the CEO not only wrote back but went out of his way to donate exactly what your son asked for?

It may sound too good to be true, but that’s exactly what happened when Grant Cerwin sent an email to Costco CEO Craig Jelinek. The sixth grader emailed Jelinek asking if he would donate one of Costco’s famous 93-inch teddy bears to his middle school’s fundraiser in Los Angeles:


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Sandra Maria/Youtube, Official Lives & Music Videos/Youtube

You can't not sing this song.

The music of Queen has a profound visceral effect on everyone. Few pieces of art can cause complete strangers to put aside their differences and come together in song, but by golly, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of them. It would be cheesy if it weren’t so absolutely beautiful.

This pertains even to non-English-speaking countries, it appears. Recently, thousands of Harry Styles concertgoers in Warsaw, Poland, began cheering as those iconic beginning piano notes penetrated the air.
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Joy

10 things that made us smile this week

Upworthy's weekly roundup of joy

From dogs to dancers, we've got a whole list of smile-worthy finds.

Have you ever wondered if laughter counts as exercise? After all, your heart rate increases, your muscles seize up and sometimes you can't even breathe. That sure sounds like exercise.

Actually, laughter does burn extra calories. If you can keep the giggles going for 10-15 minutes, you can burn 40 calories. Do that a few times a day, and you've not only gotten in a decent burn for not a lot of work, but you've also given your immune system a boost and lowered your blood sugar levels.

If you're looking for a laugh, we've got a few things here that ought to do the trick. And we've got a bunch of other things that are definitely worth smiling about, so if you could use a mood boost, we've got you.

Enjoy!

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Pop Culture

This mesmerizing dance routine is a cultural phenomenon in China and with good reason

Hearing impaired performers come together in perfect synchronization to share a beautiful message.

Hi China/Youtube

Dancers emulate Guan Yin, the goddess of compassion

In a world full of jaw-dropping dance routines, the Thousand Hand Guan Yin manages to captivate like no other.

A large group of performers in identical golden costumes flow together in synchronized movement so seamlessly that it appears as though one entity with several arms is moving about space.

That entity is Guan Yin, a goddess of compassion who, according to Buddhist legend, will never rest in nirvana as long as any sentient being suffers on Earth.

Guan Yin is often depicted with a thousand arms, having an eye in the palm of each hand, to symbolize an omnipresent mother figure always witnessing the pain of humanity with endless amounts of mercy, extending out one of her many arms to lend a helping hand.

The performers emulate this with intricate, delicate hand gestures while standing very close to one another, resulting in a mesmerizing optical illusion.

But the dance in and of itself isn't the most remarkable thing about this piece—each of the performers are hearing impaired.

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People reveal the reasons they cheated. It's insightful and eye opening.

Infidelity is devastating for relationships. When you find out a partner has been unfaithful it can feel like a bomb went off in the middle of your living room while you were just trying to drink your morning coffee. The carnage from an affair can be extensive, especially if there are children involved.

But no matter what circumstances the infidelity happened, the partner who was on the receiving end of the betrayal often wonders why? It can send some people in a spiral of shame and self blame for the actions of their partners which feel debilitating. Oftentimes, the betrayed partner never feels like they get a truthful answer from their partners but one Reddit user decided to invite partners that have strayed to explain why they cheated.

Surprisingly, many of the answers were extremely insightful seemingly showing extraordinary growth since that time in their lives. There was also a lot of remorse expressed for their previous harmful behaviors.

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