I leaned way in for the 2016 and 2020 elections. I literally ran for city council (and lost) in 2020 to be part of the efforts to push things in big and small ways in the right direction. It was exhausting. People were awful and it was overall a terrible experience.

Meanwhile, for years, my wife and I were in the long and frequently disappointing process of adopting children from our local foster care system; we decided that adopting kids who needed families was better than bringing any more children into this hellscape.

3 weeks after I lost the miserable race for city council to a lawyer who had lost (sorry, settled) a sexual harassment lawsuit from his secretary only a couple years earlier, we took in our now-adopted kids. In the last 4 years we’ve had non-stop challenges, especially with my daughter, with behaviors - she was recently diagnosed with RAD. And we’ve chosen to pull back on basically anything that isn’t either helping us get some sense of stability, is at least enjoyable, or unavoidable.

I agree that everyone who can should be doing anything they can above and beyond voting. But I feel like all I can muster with activism right now is voting, and caring for my kids the best I can.

I, too, am part of the smarty pants society

Is your assertion here that United Steelworkers just fucked up and endorsed a rabidly anti-union candidate because they’re not as up to speed on labor issues as you are?

I really appreciate the “you really think you’re smarter than the people whose job it is to do this?” Energy being exuded here. Spot on.

I’d also like to know this. Pi-hole has been pretty great.

Super Metroid