She is absolutely the BEst biTCH!:-) (I really hope you take that as I meant it, in that I mean that you are awesome:-P)

Bahah no worries, literally everybody calls me that. Ok I lied, my parents don’t, but everybody else does!

And further along those lines, I hope that you take heart in that all of our relationships with our mothers are this way, it seems to me.

Yeah you may be right about that. These days however I am working towards being friends with my mother instead of just being her child and that has been kind of a healing experience.

She really hasn’t grown up in a religious family but still, everybody else around was. People were living and breathing in religion. My grandfather hated organized religion though. He stopped going to church very early in his life and never made his children attend which is kind of crazy for someone who grew up in the early 1900s. He saw religious people as sinners looking to be forgiven on Sunday just to start a whole new week of sinning. Dude was an absolute bad ass but he suffered from chronic depression his whole life. I really wish I had the chance to discuss with him more.

I am not really a “teacher” at all I think

Aw, yeah, I understand what you mean. Jobs tend to suck the life and soul out of everything though. You can still be a teacher and not be in the teaching profession but the helper label still has a nice ring to it! I feel the same way though. I have a hard time throwing my energy at someone who can’t be bothered to bounce that energy back at me. It is so exhausting.

YAAAASSSS QUEEN! Except… hrm, it will keep coming up, every few years and also rearing its ugly head.

Oh I know, but there is a point of diminishing return for time and energy spent on things like that and it comes on real quick. Just gotta realize when that happens and stop.

It is one of the most dangerous mindsets b/c it robs people of their agency Well, the way I see it, even if everything was predetermined, I still make all my decisions as if I do have agency because my brain is convinced that I do. The difference is that in the back of my head I’m not sure I really did have a choice so it’s not worth agonizing over too much. What is done is done. Regrets just serve to influence future decisions.

liken it to a mage/sorcerer type who learned some kind of arcane branch of magic, so while their buddies are going around doing all the cool, useful stuff like fireball, we basically got nothing to show for it, except that we happen to know (what might be, MAYBE) a deeper Truth.

Hahah I like that comparison. We will probably never know in our lifetimes either, and that’s ok. I have nothing impressive like fireballs to show but I know that people see something in me that I can’t put my finger on. It’s gonna sound like a weird brag but people fucking love me and I’ve never been able to figure out why. All my life I’ve never been able to go to any kind of gathering without having people just flock around me. I’ve always just kinda wanted to be left alone so at gatherings I would try to find a nice quiet corner and have maybe a couple close friends with me, but I would always end up being swarmed and overwhelmed. Maybe that’s my power, people magnet. I have no clue how I would use such a power but I feel I’m getting closer to figuring it out.

EDIT: I will be back for part two at a later time! I’m currently in the process of buying a house and becoming something that I hate, a landlady 🤢. I’m currently having a wild internal battle about this but no matter which way I look at it, I have to do it. Gonna get back to that for a bit but I will be back.

Be careful about wishing for capitalism to retire.

Oh I know hahah. I’m always careful for what I wish for. I might not always chose the right words to put down but in my head my wish is pretty clear and simple. I wouldn’t wanna be able to say exactly what it was though because then according to the rules of the universe and the wishing laws, it would never come true 🤪

I have little control over, so I don’t worry too much (hehe, that is an enormous lie just so you know:-P) Hah! Yeah I definitely relate to that hahah. I also try not to worry about things that are out of my hands but I still can’t stop thinking about it. I think I’m getting better at not really worrying and just accepting that I am just kind a visitor in this world. I find it to be relieving to not worry about things that are out of my reach, instead concentrating on the things that I can actually touch. However, I still constantly think about everything that is out of my reach, hoping that one day my reach extends either directly or indirectly through other people who I am in contact with. Stoicism is cute in theory but in practice I’m not sure it is, although I haven’t really spent more than a couple hours thinking about it and I have definitely not put it into practice. I tried reading Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations a long time ago but never actually managed to get that far into it.

Holy crap are you my soulmate? J/k - I don’t even believe in that Hahah yeah I don’t know about soul mates. I wish it was real but at this point in my life I’ve lost faith. Also fuck the downvotes, people who actually take time to downvote things that are harmless aren’t worth a second of your time. Not upvoting would end up doing the same thing but no, they have to downvote. It’s trash behaviour from sad people.

About fighting against instant messaging: fwiw, I know my limitations, and therefore work around them. I’m getting much better with it now, although I think it’s because my mental health has just been generally improving overall in the past couple months, making it easier for me to look through the fog at the things that are actually hurting me.

And if it helps to hear from the other side, I would hate to be the cause of any pain for you. Though I am dumb as shit

Aw hahah don’t say that, but I do understand what you mean as I am also dumb as shit. Oops, I said it too. I also believe that everybody has some kind of intelligence and wish more people could see that. Even someone who appears to be dumb as bricks will probably know way more than you in many areas. There’s just so much knowledge to be amassed out there and everybody picks up different bits. Thinking that someone is just 100% stupid and doesn’t know anything just shows a lack of insight or understanding.

Rest easy:-P. Until it is time to rise again:-).

I have! I’ve been feeling too good to stay cooped up at home these past couple days. I guess I haven’t really been resting but the change of scenery has been really nice.

I will say this again down below but I like it so much that I want to repeat it to start out with as well, if you do not mind: Thank you for your kind words:-).

Hey! Right back at you, friend!

I tend to think of ADHD & autism as more chemical, whereas for me it is my trauma and decisions that have created this.

Yeah they are very difficult to tell apart. Most of my traumas come from the fact that I was different, without understanding that I was different. I tried so hard to not be different my whole life that I’ve ended up with damage that I’m not sure I will ever be able to completely fix. Most of the symptoms that I display that stem from trauma would be indistinguishable from a neurotypical person with similar traumas.

Moreover, I think everything that is an advantage is also a disadvantage, and vice versa. It is like the game rock-paper-scissors: nothing is “best”, only good in certain contexts, but you never know what the next round will bring.

That is also how I see it. It’s actually such a beautiful thing too. You can’t have anything if you don’t have balance. I don’t believe that there is a “wrong” kind of person, just maybe someone who is not suited for the current task at hand. It doesn’t mean that they are useless. In a capitalistic society, yeah maybe but I’d rather argue that capitalism is useless (I don’t think it is but I do think it’s time for it to retire) than a person.

The ability to “shut out the world” and just CREATE - it can literally change the world, and also at the same time get you fired.

Yeah it is a double-edged sword for sure. It feels like a crippling superpower at times. Yes I can concentrate on a project for 24 hours straight, but I also can’t feed myself during that time, I can’t do anything but what’s right in front of me. But still, I am also very proud to be neurodivergent. I wish I had known more about it earlier, but maybe I wouldn’t have taken it the same way if I learned about it earlier, who knows.

I’ve said this to others too, and I will say it again: I prefer thoughtful replies. I reply to enough common stuff all across the Fediverse that I’m solid on the “banter”

I agree, but banter also serves to open the door to potentially thoughtful replies. I basically use it as a feeler, kind of like a “Hey how’s it goin’” or “Hey, nice weather!”. Funny how I only really learned what the purpose of that was a couple years ago. Sometimes you send out a quick quip and someone sends one right back that shows a “compatible thought-process”. Also I just really enjoy saying stupid silly shit.

And I believe you about the trauma causing you to feel “anxiety” for not responding sooner. I… well let’s just say that I ABSOLUTELY understand that (yes, you guessed it: I am the same way, and like you I fight that).

Yeah it’s tough to fight it. Especially when you grew with with instant messaging. I’ve basically been in front of a computer with all my instant messengers opened at all times and now I regret it so much. I don’t want to be accessible 24/7, I mean I kinda do but really I can’t. It leaves you no time for you and in the end you can’t be there for anyone if you’re not there for yourself. I wish I had realized that sooner.

Thank you for your kind words:-).

💜💜💜💜

Sheee’s bAAAAaaaaack 😱

If you are interested, there is a book by the philosopher Daniel Dennett - who is a halfway decent author, e.g. of Darwin’s Dangerous Idea

That does sound right up my alley I’ll write it down. However my reading ability lately is not great. If I read 2 books in a year, that was a good year hahah. I already have a pile of books on my desk that has been there for about a year now and once in a while a book gets added on top but none get removed from the bottom 😭

Ngl, but the Catholic Church does do some good stuff Absolutely! Not only the Catholic Church, many religions do a ton of good stuff. It’s sad that these days it is difficult to see that part of it. I have family members who would not be where they are today if it wasn’t for Religion. I don’t even know what their religion is called but it’s not one of the main ones around here. It’s a very small church. They’ve never talked about it, they’ve never tried to get anyone else in the family involved and I respect that so much. All it did for them is put them on a much better path than the one they were on. They went from violent alcoholics to basically loving saints and there is nothing fake or forced about it, if you know what I mean. I still feel

I used to be very angry at the Catholic Church for a long time myself, though fortunately I healed

I can relate to that a lot. I still feel guilty about how I used to be around religion. Particularly with my mom. She used to believe and for some reason I couldn’t accept that. I would often talk shit about religion and her beliefs, try to convince her it was all just bullshit. Now I just ask myself why the fuck would I want to take that away from someone? Especially someone like my mom who basically just used religion as a way to calm her mind about the afterlife. Worst part, the most painful part, is that one of the reasons she probably believed so strongly was because it was a way for her to believe that she might be able to see my brother who died before I was born.

I also quit something - a teaching position

Ouch… I’m really sorry you’ve had to leave a teaching position. That is a tragedy, but don’t bother second guessing your decision. Whatever you did was the right thing to do. You can still teach even though you aren’t in a teaching position and I have a feeling you weren’t in it for the fame and the fortune that comes with the official title of “Teacher”.

And yeah, maybe your town will die off then. Perhaps even… I doubt you will take this the wrong way so I will go ahead and say it: perhaps it should?

Bahah none taken at all. It would be pretty hypocritical of me to take offense when I basically said the same thing about your country! It just is what it is sometimes. Maybe if we all understood that, we would take better care of what we have but no. Too many people take what we have for granted.

Try to have empathy for Trump …

Agreed. There are no monkeys named Trump on my back at this point. In a way I don’t really “care” anymore. I’d rather concentrate on the things that are happening rather than the people who we view as the cause of those things because it’s never really just one person. Trump wouldn’t have been able to do much if there wasn’t a growing mass of people who somehow connected to the things he was saying. To put the blame on one person would be ignoring the true root of the issues. Do I believe he deserve every punishment he gets? Yes, 100%. What he does not deserve is my time and energy. I’d rather spend it on people who might end up voting for someone like him.

…from the GREATEST PERSON ALIVE ON THE PLANET EARTH RIGHT NOW, Jon Stewart…

Hahah! Yaaaass! I wanted to watch the whole thing raw before I watched Jon Stewart on it though but I will probably end up just watching that instead.

Determinism: I also believe that. I cannot prove it though, so I don’t hold to it too hard.

Ahhhh yes. This is the part that really sent my brain into a death spiral 😂 It still does. It is just such a “fun” thing to think about. There is so much to think about when you know nothing. I see it as any other kind of belief. Since you can’t prove it, it should only enter the equation when nothing else can help you make a decision. When there is no right or wrong, or all options are appear to be either right or wrong, to me that is when beliefs are useful. Then again, that is kind of why we’re at this point in time right now. Ironic. Some beliefs are just more dangerous than others I guess, or maybe it’s just the incompatibility between certain beliefs that is dangerous.

And yes, since we can’t know whether we have free-will or not, we must treat it as if we did because our brain tells us we do but we still need to remember that our brain lies all the time. Well, maybe not as much lie as it omits a lot of information.

he meant it, he set things in motion to make it happen, nobody bothered to try to fight back, and, here we are)

I like that thought. Inertia isn’t only applicable to the physical world.

I have to apologize, I am having a hard time grasping your thoughts on space and time. If you want you can try to re-word that for me as I wouldn’t mind having a clearer picture and toying with your ideas a bit.

Yes, we may be pawns on a chessboard, but who is to say that WE are not ALSO the players!? If life is a video game, WE could be the characters, but “WE” could ALSO be coming down into our avatars from above.

Oh god yeah. That is something that I have thought about a lot. I also like the idea that we are all just one consciousness experiencing itself from within, or just a bunch of thoughts trying to sort themselves out in some sort of giant cosmic brain. I dunno hahah, these ideas can go pretty far and get pretty crazy. It’s just so much fun to think about. I miss Timothy Leary, Terence McKenna and their crazy psychedelic-fueled ideas.

----PART 2----

And moreover, who cares?

Exactly.

That said, I halfway agree in that I think people carry around so many strange things, that when you talk with someone you are only partway talking to them, and partway talking to all the stuff that they bring with them.

Oh it is very rare that you will get to truly talk to someone. I think you’re always interacting with a translation layer that sits between an interface and the actual mind.

I do believe there is a higher mind and that we all have it but that it can be buried and suffocated. It’s very difficult to stay open-minded these days as we are constantly bombarded with crap coming from all directions. I can’t blame anyone for closing that door after a while. I also think that you should never really be interacting with the same person twice. Healthy people grow and change constantly.

I have thought that before, but can never seem to hold onto it

I know exactly what you mean. It is extremely difficult to hold on to. It takes a conscious effort to do so but it is absolutely worthwhile. To me it offloads a ton of weight from my shoulders.

Oh no! I didn’t mean anything about what you wrote or your writing style or anything. Sorry if I came across that way. I think we have a very similar writing style, no offence 😂

I don’t… think that I have ADHD (read as: I think that I might have some form of ADHD or something along those lines:-P) - or rather I think we all lie on the spectrum somewhere

The autism spectrum is a strange and fascinating thing. I’m also not entirely convinced ADHD is really a separate thing, just ADHD being a set or subset of traits within the autism spectrum that we’ve decided to identify and label as ADHD instead of lumping it with autism. Autism and ADHD have very high rates of comorbidity, the major differentiating factor between the two is that ones traits/symptoms can be managed using stimulants.

It is easy to think that everybody must be on it a little bit but I’m not sure that’s the case. I know for me it’s something that has definitely crossed my mind but the more I thought about it, the closer I got to the conclusion that it is more likely that I have inadvertently surrounded myself with people who are also on the spectrum/neurodivergent. We kind of speak the same language and have many shared experiences/traumas so it would be no surprise that we would associate.

I do believe that many people we consider highly intelligent are/were on the spectrum. It does grant the “ability” to think in completely different ways and to view very different perspectives. It can be a blessing and/or a curse, very rarely a blessing alone.

Welp, I don’t decide when I get going but when I do, I have a hard time stopping 💀. I’m gonna manually pull the brake here and cut off that rant right there 😅

definitely should hold off on reading all of that huge wall of text until you have the capacity.

I did read it though! Sorry I thought I mentioned that in my previous post but apparently I didn’t hahah. I just wanted to let you know that I had seen and read your comment but I’m having a very low-functioning day today. The subjects brought up are not subjects I take lightly and even though we’re not doing much more than shooting the shit on the internet, you’ve brought things up that I really want to ponder and explore before taking the time to reply. I appreciate the conversation with you and I know it takes time and energy to put thoughts on paper. Just wanted you to know it wasn’t a waste, I am still listening.

and maybe I should have altered my own actions there to not lay such a heavy burden on you to feel “pressured” to respond quickly.

Not at all. That’s 100% on me, that’s just how I am. There’s probably (definitely 100%) trauma hiding somewhere behind that but that’s another comment thread 😂

Also I could really should have taken time on my own to re-word it significantly shorter, which would have helped a ton:-). Sorry if I was disrespectful in that manner.:-)

You have not been disrespectful in any way. I know how it is when you start writing and more and more stuff just keeps coming up, no reason not to share those thoughts. Pound away on that keyboard. I’ll talk to you soon!

Oh my. My ADHD is on fire today so I’m gonna be slow to reply to this one hahah. I’m having a really hard time organizing my thoughts and writing them down is going to be difficult as every line I read just sends me into a absolute trainwreck of thoughts. So. Many. Thoughts. I will be back with a reply as soon as my brain is untangled.

Ngl though, controlling the masses may have had a use, back in the day, before most people could read, by providing incentives for them to not kill and rape and steal and such.

Oh yeah I 100% agree with that. Religion was basically a proto-government. It’s funny, reminds me of when I was in high school. I was part of the student newspaper and at some point I had written an article about religion and how it is basically an antiquated form of government and how it has no real purpose anymore. Edgy I know. The next Monday in school I heard about how the town priest had read the article during Sunday mass. Apparently he was NOT happy about it. I was pretty proud of that one, not gonna lie 😂.

People who have been through some shit end up having more “character” than those who do not.

Yeah I think so too, but it can also easily go both ways, especially when you can’t manage to get out of said shit. (Nvm I see now that I should read a bit further before starting to type bahah)

I do believe however that the ones who’ve inflicted the most pain on others as a result of their own pain have the potential to be the ones who try their hardest to make up for their mistakes, which is why I try hard to not discount anyone. I might be wearing rose-colored glasses but I have to keep them on.

As for the media on the other side

Yeah the right associating with leaders such as Putin and Orbán is fucked up on so many levels. They definitely are good at what they do. That’s one of the reasons I dislike how people on both sides treat each other like the other side is dumb. All sides have brilliant people and ignorant followers. And OF COURSE Hillary was corrupt, nobody who gets that far in politics has clean hands. They’re all corrupted in some way or another but not necessarily equally. Centrist cunts fuck off.

One of my best friends, brilliant guy, doctor of philosophy. A couple of years ago he decided he wanted to get into politics so he started small. He decided to run for city council here and won. It didn’t even take a year for him to absolutely hate the game. He said he could not sleep anymore, couldn’t handle how corrupted even stupid little city council members could be. He said there was no way for him to stay there without getting his own hands dirty and he wanted no part of it. Within a year he quit, and left the town to go teach halfway across the world at the University of Liverpool where he still is now. He couldn’t stand seeing these people anymore. It made sense then why our little town is dying. Even the tiniest amount of power is immense to tiny people. I’d like to see the day where we can offload a lot of these duties to some kind of AI, but that’s a whole other can of worms that we are not ready to open.

Trump is someone I have a very hard time having any empathy for, but yeah, I also have a teeny tiny bit, because he really is nothing but a child. However I don’t have any hope for him to ever turn around and do something good other than for his own selfish reasons. He is too old to grow up now.

Oh and on the subject of the Carlson-Putin interview. You wouldn’t happen to have a link for a re-upload? I still haven’t watched it because I refuse to even give it a single official view but I need to see it.

Anyway, it is not “just” the people that are broken, I agree, it is the SYSTEM.

It is. We are all products of our environment. I don’t think we actually have much control over anything, not even ourselves. That’s definitely one of my wacky beliefs. I’ve never been able to shake off the idea that we live in a deterministic universe so it is hard for me to stay mad at a person or a group of people when I don’t even believe they had any real control over their action. It would be like getting mad at the messenger. We still need to get mad and fight, but not the people. We need to fight ideas with better ideas. We need to love the people because they are us and we are them. Without them there is no us and vice versa. A world with no opposition is a world that would go sideways in no time.

In-fighting between humans has been a thing since forever and look where we are now. We are wayyyyy better off in most aspects than we were not that long ago. It’s easy to forget that when we’re forced to take a step backwards but we as a species will come back from this, we always have. At least, assuming we manage to heal our planet but unfortunately we can’t do that if we don’t somehow heal ourselves first.

A “coup” to overturn something is NOT the same thing as “saving” it, dummies!!!:-(

Yeahhh… I don’t even know what to say about Jan 6th. That is such a messed up thing. I think that a lot of people who showed up at the Capitol didn’t have bad intentions, they were misled. Although I’m sure there were plenty involved that absolutely had bad intentions. Most of them problably weren’t there in person.

this isn’t something that most of us even seem to want to fight about? However, our media sells fear and extremism, and our politicians too

That’s pretty much it. Most people don’t want to fight but the news, the politicians, corporations, whatever, they’ve all figured out that pitting us against each other was very profitable. Not only do we have parasites at home, we have parasites on the outside as well trying to creep in and profit as well. At this point it feels like we can’t trust anything or anyone, it’s no surprise that there is a rise in conspiracy brains.

I hope something will restore my faith, but I am not optimistic about that:-(. Therefore I believe that I am living in a dying country

But you kinda are hahah, when have you ever seen something that is not dying in some way or another? All nations will eventually disappear or change into something completely unrecognizable. Either something new and better is born out of the seemingly rotting carcass that is the American empire, or something terrible to you will take it’s place and that same cycle will repeat. It’s terrifying to think that we could lose our way of life, I tend to talk like I’m not scared but really I’m terrified. It’s the unknown part of it that is really scary.

I do whatever I can to help others in my vicinity and abroad nonetheless, not b/c I think I will necessarily accomplish anything truly great there, but simply b/c it is who I am and how I want to be. We all need to live out our authentic lives, being our true selves:-).

Those who aspire for greatness often end up accomplishing nothing. You’re doing the right thing. It’s impossible for one person to change the big picture but you can absolutely change what is immediately around you and that is a very powerful thing. That is where we need to put our energy. I feel like the internet has done us a great disservice in that area. We are not ready to be so connected yet. We’ve lost the will to fight locally because we are way too overwhelmed with things that are happening where we are absolutely powerless to help. Take care of your close ones so that they can take of theirs. The rest will work itself out. This is no time for apathy.

(Are we going for the longest comment thread in Lemmy history or what?)

Though I guess you see that it is not just Christianity.

Nah, it is absolutely not just Christianity. I see all religion as the same thing. It’s the same people, just different stories. I include some atheists in there hahah. Fervent atheists and “believers” share many of the same traits. I don’t think the particular religion has anything to do with it, it’s probably that people who are susceptible to following a religion are more susceptible to fall for tricks and support authoritarianism. I don’t wanna sound like I think I’m better than anyone who follows a religion. I think having some kind of belief system is essential and that we all have that built in us so it’s kinda natural for people to gravitate towards religions. I have my own whacky belief system that I’m sure some people would scoff at but it’s mine and it has served me well so far. I just think beliefs are a very personal thing and that’s how it should’ve stayed. Religions are more about control than they are about beliefs and values.

Anyway I am proud of you. Stand up for yourself! That is definitely not my situation but who the fuq cares, b/c you need to be (free to) be you. And that’s the problem with Authoritarianism

Thank you! I am and I will continue doing so. I will not live in an authoritarian society. If you have but one ally in this fight against authoritarianism, it’ll be us trans folk hahah. We will not be shoved back into the closet peacefully, this I can promise.

this Innuendo Studies should have nothing whatsoever to do with HBO, and therefore you probably have seen it already:-P)

I don’t remember it but apparently at some point I’ve watched the first two videos of the series. I’ll try to give it another shot hahah

they lack empathy and allow - even perform - the judgement onto others (except their leaders, who they conveniently exempt from all proper consequences of their actions)

Yeah those are the ones that really scare me. Some people are just sociopaths and sycophants, they need to be recognized for what they are but people can’t even tell what’s real and what’s not anymore. We’ve propped up these kinds of people for decades on TV and in the media and now people think that’s normal. Today I look at some of your politicians bickering and I feel like I’m watching an episode of Jersey Shore. Similar thing is happening with the current conservatives in Canada, it’s actually painfully cringy to see. It’s like high school type of shit all over again. Not something we should be seeing in parliament.

How ironic that you are showing compassion to them even while they spit at you (as Jesus would, hehe:-P). Stay strong, my sister in empathy!:-)

HAHAH, yeah I am very far from being a Christ figure but many people have called me Jesus during my life. Mostly because of my hair, I did kinda look like your classic White Jesus™ 😂. I just have a really hard time abandoning anyone and I can’t stay mad at anyone because it absolutely eats me inside if I do. I always try to find excuses for peoples behaviours. My compassion might also come from a bit of a selfish place as there was a time where I could’ve probably fallen for shit like that, hell, I have. I’ve been a piece of shit in the past but it all stemmed from a combination personal issues and growing up in a very secluded environment. I don’t think I could’ve fallen as deep into hatred and ignorance as some seem to be these days but still, we’re not that different. I know why I was that way, I may not know why others are but I know why I was, and in the end I was “redeemable”. I think most people are and it’s hard for me not to give everyone a chance.

Though, you still having a somewhat functional government does mean that you should be alright:-)

For what it’s worth, I think you guys will be alright too. Have some faith :3 (But don’t stop doing what you do)

Well that’s where we differ, Americans and Canadians. Canadians are on average much more liberal than Americans. We also have a very different political system. We actually have more than two options to chose from! Crazy, I know! The political system doesn’t control general sentiment of the population so things can still get hairy but nobody has started dismantling our checks and balances yet so at least we’ve got that?

Our conservative party isn’t usually as bad as the American conservatives either. Although Bitcoin Milhouse and a couple other Conservative leaders are starting to spew some of the same ignorant bullshit, trying to get reactionary votes, I am way less scared about my future here than I would be in the US. We do have a part of the population that are getting sucked into it but it’s really nowhere near as bad (yet, hopefully never). We’ve got Alberta that’s very conservative and very loud, they’re basically Little Texas but whatever, they’ve always been that way. They’ve never changed and they never will. Business as usual. Ontario is a bit scary with what Doug Ford is doing and even in my little province we have our own little conservative pissbaby, who is absolutely wrecking havoc but even other conservatives hate his ass so there’s a decent chance he gets booted out next provincial election.

I’m from French Canada, not Quebec but still French. I’m probably sheltered from it a bit as we are super liberal, much more than English Canada. I don’t really see that much insanity here, even in my tiny little fisherman village. Not to say everybody is cool. I have noticed a change in the way some people look at me in the past couple years, being a transwoman in such a small place where people have never really left their backyards and seen anything. Before it was mostly curiosity, surprise, whatever. Now I see people look at me in disgust and anger. I’ve seen a mother grab her kid and scuttle away to the other side of a store as if I could give them the trans. I’ve had someone spit in my sandwich at a fast food restaurant, although that happened in a neighbouring English city (Risky to do something like that here, I probably know your dad 😉).

Nothing anywhere near that kind of shit happened to me even just 2 years ago and I’ve been loudly trans here for over 7 years now. I 100% attribute that to the hateful and ignorant shit that’s being spewed out by the right and the crazy religious folk being picked up here by people who don’t know any better.

Shit, that was a rant. I don’t even remember what we were talking about. Sorry hahah.

Well. I just finished watching the episode on authoritarianism. It was pretty scary and frustrating to hear some of the people who support these things, as it usually is. I think John Oliver summed it up pretty well at the end. Saying how he understands that democracy can be frustrating with all the checks and balances but that removing those opens up the door for things that are much worse. These people really need to understand exactly what they are toying with.

Unfortunately people have a hard time seeing much further than the tip of their own noses and don’t see the harm that they are causing as long as it doesn’t directly affect them, which it won’t until it is too late and the damage has been done.

I think the the problem we are having these days is an empathy problem. People have a really hard time feeling empathy for “others” and who can really blame them? There is so much wrong everywhere you look and everybody is struggling. Everybody is trying to survive and look out for their loved ones just like everybody else but they’ve been sold lies, given scapegoats and promised solutions to fictional problems.

Whatever happens next, it’ll be interesting that’s for sure.

Oh for sure. These things are complicated and it’s really hard to come up with a simple conclusion.

Authoritarianism definitely seems to be on the rise everywhere, although I still believe that most people are against it. You can’t really trust online sentiment and personally I haven’t encountered that many people IRL that would support something like that. My fear is that some people might not realize what they’re voting for and what it really means but I still believe that most people are good and that we can get out of this mess before it is too late.

We are definitely not safe from it here in Canada so yeah, your escape plan might not work out. Things that happen down south often end up happening up here as well, with a little bit of delay. Canadians aren’t really that different from Americans and we consume the same type of media. Hopefully if shit does hit the fan, even the dumbest of voters will be smart enough to see that it is not something that they want and we can stop it before it runs rampant here.

Hahah I will be back with some comments on it once I’ve had a chance to actually watch it. Gimme a couple hours, I haven’t been up for long enough my brain is still a foggy maze :3

I might’ve also already seen it, but my memory is ummm… Well it’s something.

Anyway I’m sure John would be happy that I’ve pirated his show, especially as a last resort. With the offer he’s made to Clarence Thomas, I also don’t think he really needs the pennies. I would rather support him but it is what it is.

I’ve also added it to my media server so all my friends will see it in their feed. They all also love John.

Edit: Also, I made the mistake of watching Noah Samsen’s video on the starvation of the Palestinian people first thing after I woke up. I need a break 😭

Urgh, I thought for a second that maybe the piped link was gonna work but no :(

I could get it to work with a proxy or vpn but fuck it. I pirated it 🏴‍☠️

I think it’s HBO who blocks it 😩. Lots of American TV networks block their content from being viewed outside the US.

Urgh it doesn’t work 😭 I’ve tried searching for it and it doesn’t come up, just random playlists named Authoritarianism that don’t actually contain the video. I’ll have to pirate it. Sorry John :(

:3

Completely unrelated but because of your username this is how I picture you. Sorry.

Unfortunately that link doesn’t seem to work in Canadia but I’ll look it up. I love John Oliver.

o7 <3

Well it sure is how it seems depending on where you look. Just gotta hope that a majority of people haven’t lost their mind yet.

Well damn! No wonder you guys are so patriotic! I think I might be a bit jealous of your freedom and your news industry.

(Wish I could help 😞 I’m just up here in this other little North American country. The really cold one. Just wishing someone saves you from yourselves before that stink moves too far up and gets embedded in the carpet. Unfortunately we’ve been getting more and more whiffs of it in the past couple years. We may need help too.)

Holy fucking shit. How have I never seen that version of your flag before? That other one is so boring why isn’t this one flying everywhere?