#social script

Copy paste social script for when you need to respond to a message but don’t have the energy at that moment. I found this works really well because it lets people know you value their time and their reaching out, that you’ve seen their message and intend to respond, and gives you a concrete deadline.

Conversation scripts List of the social ideas I have posted

If you live in the United States, you can and should call your US House Representative in favor of the Ceasefire Now resolution.

The following language is adapted from https://ceasefiretoday .com

Phone Script:

"Hello, my name is ____.

"I live at ____ [your street address].

"My phone number is ____.

"My email address is ____.

"I'm calling to ask that the Representative add their name to the Ceasefire Now resolution led by representatives Cori Bush and Rashida Tlaib. [pronounced "tuh-leeb"]

"It is absolutely urgent that the Representative demand a ceasefire, and that they call on Israel to allow humanitarian assistance into Gaza."

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If you call your US representative, you will speak to a staffer or an intern, not the representative themself.

The staffer or intern will take down your information (this is to make sure you are a constituent, meaning you live in that representative’s district. You should only call your own representative. If you don’t know who your representative is, you can visit https://www.house .gov/representatives/find-your-representative)

You only need to say is what’s in the script above. You don’t need to add to or alter the script if you don’t want to. You don’t need to convince the staffer to agree with you, and they won’t give you their opinion, because they aren’t allowed to. Be kind to them.

The actual words you use don’t matter, just the basic meaning of them. Be brief. It’s okay if you fumble or stutter.

What will happen once you hang up is that the staffer will mark down that a constituent called in favor of Ceasefire Now in Gaza and in favor of humanitarian aid.

At the end of the work day, the staffer will send a note to the representative saying how may constituents called in favor of ceasefire and aid, and how many (if any) called for additional aid to Israeli military operations. The representative uses this quantitative information to determine how much their constituents care about the issue, and what their constituents are advocating for.

Your representative will never hear your exact words. That’s ok. Calling is still an incredibly powerful action when done in mass. A representative who receives many calls advocating for a specific action is much more likely to take that action.

You can call at night or outside of working hours. That’s ok. What will happen is you will go to voicemail. The staffer will take down your information and opinion the following day (there is typically one staffer on call over the weekend who will do this).

If you leave a voicemail, make sure you leave any information about you that the voicemail message asks for. This is often your name, address, phone number, and email. This information is used to confirm that you live in the representative’s district, and so that the staffer or the representative can reply to you if need be.

Calling isn’t as scary as it sounds. It is a valuable action and a brave thing to do. Representatives take calls very seriously, and you can have a big impact by calling.

Ask your local friends and neighbors to phone bank with you. Phone banking is when many people call their representatives about the same issue. Phone banking is a very powerful action.

aspd-culture is

Honestly? People really like to shove their nose where it doesn't belong sometimes. There's some advice below on how I'd handle the convo with an Exception about this if you want to have one, but it's worth nothing that my policy is that if it's upsetting them then it's their job to come to me and talk to me about it, not for someone outside of our relationship/friendship/etc to stick their nose in and try and tell us how to live our lives, and that goes with anyone in my life regardless of the type of relationship.

If it were me, here's what I would do (and I have done this bc of this exact situation before): In a private, safe place where you know you won't be interrupted, set aside time with your Exception/s (do this individually if there are more than one) to talk about something you're concerned might be upsetting them. I'd phrase it like that so they don't get anxious or defensive thinking you're upset at them about something.

Then say "so and so keeps saying that this thing is upsetting you, and I've been assuming that they're wrong, but I'd like to double check". Explain what it is to the best of your understanding, and then remind them that there is no judgement if it is upsetting them, but that you need them to talk to you about it for you to know something needs to change.

*If* it is upsetting them, pause and take a second to really listen to them and try to control the anger you may have. ASPD tends to (at least in my case) take badly to finding out an outsider understood something about your Exception that you didn't. Remind yourself that they are being open with you and that lashing out in response to that will only increase the chance that they will hide more things from you in the future, causing a repeat of this situation.

I would ask them to get into what exactly is upsetting them about it and how it's making them feel. Once they're fully done explaining, the first thing is to validate and echo their sentiments. Prosocials tend to need proof that you heard and took in their side before moving past their piece of an emotional conversation. Be prepared with an apology script going into this, and be ready to make changes to the behavior. If you aren't prepared for that, don't invite this conversation and just continue as you are until either they bring it up or you're ready for it.

Then, once you've apologized and worked on a plan together on how to change things, confirm that there's nothing else bothering them and see if they feel any better after talking to you about it. Then feel free to express (in a gentle way) the frustration/hurt/any emotion you feel at having to have learned that someone close to you was hurt by something you were doing from someone else and not the person you care about. Remind them that the only way you can know something is wrong is if they talk to you and that without communication from them, you aren't going to keep letting other people tell you their emotions.

It's an ok time at this point to set a boundary of something along the lines of "I will not be taking outside perspectives as indication that something is wrong. If you're upset about something and choose to hide it or tell other people instead of me, then I will assume nothing is wrong. If and when you're ready to talk to me about things that are upsetting you, I'm willing to listen, but I will not be initiating conversations like this based off something anyone else tells me in the future." There's nothing wrong with saying you expect them to do their part in communicating their emotions.

[Professor/Doctor] [Surname],

Hi! I’ll be a student in your upcoming [course subject] course on [days] at [time]. I’m just sending a quick email to let you know that I’m transgender and haven’t legally changed my name, so I use a different name than what is registered on [Blackboard/Canvas/etc.].

My name on [Blackboard/Canvas/etc.] is [full legal name]. I’ll be using the name [full preferred name] as my screen name on [Zoom/GoReact/etc.] and on [written or typed assignments/etc.], and would greatly appreciate it if you could refer to me as ‘[preferred first name]’ and [pronouns] pronouns.

If you have any questions or if there are any concerns, my student email is [student email]. Thank you for understanding, and I look forward to starting your class!

My office mates are lovely people but I am truly considering recording my half of our Monday morning conversation so I can walk in and hit play and not have to perform first thing. "Yes, hello... good, and yours?... oh that sounds nice... yeah, a lot to do... yeah, it's Monday... yeah, lots of weekend emails to look at, you got it..."

Also, fun fact: did you know Prince Charming is not actually this character's name? It seems his name is actually Henri? I'll have to do more reading...

Image: Prince Charming starting to cover his mouth in the middle of a long yawn; he is dressed formally and looking up with a very bored expression.

Text: me getting through the "how was your weekend" small talk script / Every. / Single. / Monday.

These situations tend to be awkward for me if we just bump into each other for no particular reason, so I made a little list of things I could say (preferably without having to stop and have an actual conversation)

2nd / 3rd

Hey, are you still [what they answered the first time I asked "How are you"]

Your [whatever I complimented the first time] is still great

3rd / 4th / 5th / 6th / more

Hey, you again ! *Head or hand gesture + smile*

Yep, it's me again *Head or hand gesture+smile*

It's always nice to see you

We sure meet a lot uh *Smile or laugh*

Are we running in circles here ? *Laugh*

Some variations

If after lunch/diner

Did you eat well ?* What did you eat?* Where did you eat ? (If I wasn't there)

Depends on who you meet AND you must have a friend, but hey

Have you seen [Person] ? IMPORTANT : it can be either someone you're actually looking for OR an accomplice. The person you're asking this to must NOT have seen you with your accomplice recently.

Warn a friend that you may ask random people"Where is [your friend] ?" For no particular reason other than not feeling bad by walking past someone you know without exchanging words. This way, they won't feel surprised if someone says "Hey, YY is looking for you" & just answer something simple like " Ok thanks"

If the person asks why you're looking for your friend, just say it's not that important & you'll message them later, then wave bye & go on with your life.