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Many years back I spent a couple of years volunteering on a telephone crisis line. As part of the selection weekend, we had to do quite a few role plays, where the would-be volunteers played caller and volunteer. You can see where this is heading.

Having to role play an obscene phone caller to a lovely woman while being watched by a bunch of other people was one of the most excruciating experiences of my life. If I did it badly, she would not have been able to demonstrate her skills. If I did it well...not sure I could have looked anyone in the eye after.

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That Brenda Befriending manual is really shocking. I’m surprised the Wellcome Trust weren’t more critical. Were any women in similar professions (mental health nurses, therapists) placed under the same expectation to “help in the best way you know how?” And did Varah check in with any other experts when he created his taxonomy of telephone masturbators? Sounds quite cultlike.

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I've thought Jack Dorsey was pretty weird since he went on a ten-day silent meditation retreat for his birthday in 2018: https://twitter.com/jack/status/1071575088695140353?lang=en

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