In case you can’t tell, I’m passionate about rationality and critical thinking.

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Joined 9 months ago
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Cake day: September 22nd, 2024

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  • My middle school held an assembly over a fad of “dick tapping” that had taken over the boys in the school. Apparently it had become “a thing” for them to just reach over and slap their friends’ penises, and it got so bad that we needed a damn assembly.

    All us girls were extremely confused. We legit thought most of the boys in our school must have secretly been gay if they wanted to touch each other’s dicks so badly. Even if the boys weren’t gay, we figured they must be pretty frickin’ stupid to play such a dumb “game.” A lot of us had crushes evaporate in an instant, and I for one never looked at the boys in my class the same again.

    Nowadays, I know better than to assume one’s sexuality from such things. However, I never stopped being extremely confused about that game.








  • Sigh I’ve heard my parents and their neighbors complain about “all the Jews” buying houses to rent to “all the Mexicans” who now live in their neighborhood. (Hint: there is no way that 100% of the “Mexicans” they refer to are actually Mexican. But being so nuanced isn’t a skill racists tend to have.)

    I hate houses being bought up by big landlords, too, and I know that being constantly bugged by realtors (who just want to turn around and rent those houses out anyway) is something that bothers those particular home owners. I would be great if we could talk about those problems for what they are, without bringing in people’s religion, culture, or national origin. The only war is a class war, and although even these people agree that a class war of some type exists, it seems that some people love to hate so much that it just gets added to a pile of things to hate.

    It’s almost like they’re the opposite of polyamorous, some kind of poly-misery, where they can’t hate just one group. Ugh.


  • Yesterday I drove into my home town, where I grew up. It’s been hard to go there since MAGA erupted. In a usually-blue state, my home town (and the surrounding area) goes deep red. I wish I could say it was inexplicable, but I grew up around these people - their current authoritarian boot-licking matches up with everything I always knew about them.

    How wonderful this news could’ve been to hear on the TV 12 hours ago, when I was back in that town, sitting in a waiting room. There was only one other person in the room, a middle-aged white guy who kept loudly saying things in response to the news on the TV. I’m pretty sure he was just trying to chat with someone, but I know how easy it is to accidentally set some people off, and I’m not about to make small talk about the news with a stranger in that town.

    So I ignored him. He kept making unsolicited commentary. I kept reading my phone. Thankfully, someone eventually entered the room with a dog, and that gave the man a chance to start a conversation about the good boi, which the dog’s owner happily obliged. But now I wonder what he would have said if this story had been on the news at that time. It might have actually been entertaining.


  • Which is why we should all be joining up with supportive local community groups, like, yesterday. Under this administration, one should best assume that there is no official safety net anymore. The dictator-in-chief can sign an executive order and remove everything on a whim.

    We’re going to be reliant on our neighbors in a way we haven’t seen in generations. Get involved and start making connections now. There are organizations across the country that serve their own communities.

    One quick note - be mindful of how those organizations are funded. If they rely on government funding, that means they’re beholden to the government. To this government. Which can choose to withhold funding or to attach ridiculous strings to it. On the other hand, if they’re completely donation-based by the local community, they can remain faithful to their members’ interests and keep running regardless of which politicians are in charge. Just something to keep in mind.