Story Time:

Story time:

In middle school biology, we did an experiment. We were given yams, which we would sprout in cups of water. We then had to make hypotheses about how the yams would grow, based on descriptions of yam plants in our books, and make notes of our observations as they grew.

Here’s what was supposed to happen: we were supposed to see that the actual growth of the plant did not resemble our hypotheses. We were then supposed to figure out that these were, in fact, sweet potatoes.

What actually happened was that every single student in every single class lied in their notes so that their observations perfectly matched their hypotheses. See, everyone assumed the mismatch meant they had done something wrong in the process of growing the plant or that they had misunderstood the dichotomous key or the plant identification terminology. And, thanks to the wonders of a public school education, everyone assumed the wrong results would get us a failing grade. We were trying to pass. We didn’t want to get bitched out by the teacher. Curiosity, learning, science - that had nothing to do with why we were sitting in that classroom. So we all lied.

The teacher was furious. She tried to fail every student, but the administration stepped in and told her she wasn’t allowed to because a 100% fail rate is recognized as a failure of the teacher, not the class. It wasn’t even her fault, really, though her being a notorious hard-ass didn’t help. It was a failure of the entire educational system.

So whenever I see crap like Elizabeth Holmes’s blood test scam or pharmaceutical trials which are unable to be replicated or industry-funded research that reaches wildly unscientific conclusions, I just remember those fucking sweet potatoes. I remember that curiosity dies when people are just trying to give their superiors the “right” answers, so they can get the grade, get the job, get the paycheck. It’s not about truth when it’s about paying rent. There’s no scientific integrity if you can’t control for human desperation.

Tags

important dystopia

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One under-appreciated breed of fic writer are the ones who hyperfocus on logistics to the exclusion of all canon shortcuts, and thus usually strike upon an awesome way to flesh out the worldbuilding or characters.

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Wednesday: Enid texted me “your adorable” so I texted her back and said “no, YOU’RE adorable.”

Eugene: And?

Wednesday: And now we’re dating. We’ve been on six dates. All I did was point out a typo, but I like her, so I’m not gonna say anything.

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They’re about to break so many laws it’s not even funny, I can feel it in my bones

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My take on Spider!Wednesday

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uh oh! you misunderstood a social cue and said something mildly awkward. you will think about this and cringe everyday for the next 20 years

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1 year ago

wednesday is so fucking whipped for enid it’s hilarious. it’s a known fact that wednesday doesn’t listen to anybody. BUT the MOMENT enid tells her to do something, she goes and does it.

enid tells wednesday to go apologize to thing? wednesday instantly walks off and does exactly that.

enid doesn’t like wednesday’s crime board? fine, she’ll move it to eugene’s bee shed.

enid wants wednesday to wear the snood? alright, she’ll wear it to a murder investigation…or a funeral all because she doesn’t want to hurt her sunshine gf’s feelings.

wednesday addams is whipped and the possibility of her ever interacting with another character like she does enid is zero to none.

case closed.

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