Hindsight Is... 2022 Edition

Since some really bad people decided to prolong the pandemic in the United States, the musings will continue until the pandemic ends. If you don't like it, blame them.

9/12/22 Boomer Archetypes - and no, this is not referring to the entire Baby Boomer age bracket. "Boomer" is an attitude, not an age, though it was coined based on the large amount of people acting like this within the Baby Boomer age bracket. Included here in the hopes no one innocent will ever have to go through being treated like this again.

• Thus follows a list of archetypes I've met throughout the course of my life. The faces and names blur. The actions and attitudes are exactly the same. It's pretty strange to notice that all of these people fully believed they were being shockingly original.
• Nuclear Meltdown: outraged hysterical Karen behavior, brought out by not being compliant with whatever the person wanted to hear at the time, or not being exactly what they expected. Attempts to break one's spirit ensue. Despite the hysterical, toddler-like temper tantrum which makes you laugh the first time you see it, over time it wears a person down and can eventually be effective. Likely to cause temporary trauma or PTSD if said person is in a position of hierarchical authority in the social structure of any given place or situation. The intention is to get the victim to grovel and cower in the face of the perpetrator's overwhelming supposed might and superiority. And they always, always 100% believe this is fully justified.
• Gaslighting and victim-blaming: Self-explanatory.
• Mystical Bullshit: Absolute, total refusal to use any kind of logic or common sense, preferring instead to be as vague as humanly possible. Legions of philosophies condone this kind of behavior on far left and far right, for political ideologies, religions, alternative lifestyles, for whatever, and it's all blind belief based on something other than the truth. Usually they gravitate to anything that they want to hear, and then spin whatever ideology they've taken on into exactly that at every given moment. Religion in particular is usually chopped, stewed, twisted, and used to condone any and all behavior regardless of what the religion is actually supposed to be about. Usually followed by Nuclear Meltdown when gently explained to that indeed that is not how reality works. However they often avoid this by simply, and conveniently, absolutely refusing to even listen to anything they don't want to hear. Or even think they don't want to hear.
• Craving for Pleasure: Happiness is the end-all-be-all. They want to feel good. They value this over and above doing what is right.
• Good Old Fashioned 'Isms: This is the usual prop for the narcissism in Boomers. In order to keep their house of cards standing and pretend it's a castle, they have to use a scapegoat. This is very ingrained. So they look to the "other" so they can avoid taking personal responsibility for anything bad in their life. It's the Witches. It's the Black people. It's the Jews. It's the Women. It's the Men. It's the heat, it's making them angry. It's the bad luck they keep having. It's anything but the guy in the mirror. And nothing is more convenient or alluring than an -ism to hold it all together. Why, many religions and philosophies even condone this kind of thing, particularly sexism and discrimination based on perceived socioeconomic status or caste. All that obsession with appearances, such as being positive (often via dumping your crap on scapegoats and getting high off a power trip), and wearing the right clothes, and making the right impression, isn't really something that people outside "the right clique" get taught. High school never ends. And the real weird thing here is that the selection criteria for what is "good" and what is "bad" has absolutely nothing to do with actual ethics, and everything to do with self-similarity. If you're similar enough to the Boomer, you're "good." Too different, "bad." It has been my experience that it's completely arbitrary otherwise. Poor Boomers think other poor Boomers virtuous. Boomers who speak the same language and have the same skin color consider others in that group "virtuous." Preferential treatment is given to others like them to form an artificial friend group (which falls apart and flakes with the slightest bit of pressure), bullying and hazing heaped on everyone else. Try to take this power tripping away from them by explaining it's neither logical nor good? Nuclear Meltdown.
• Two Faces (like that character in The Nightmare Before Christmas). The nicer they are, the more people in their "proper friend group" are watching. The level of depravity and evil they will gladly sink to in order to get what they want when no one is watching is pretty much boundariless. Why? Because they're not suckers, like people who have a conscience, and betrayal, exploitation and abuse is lucrative. And of course, the worse they are as people the better they are at pretending they're fabulous, and they're usually the most popular and successful people in town. The skills they often excel at the most are people skills. Slick persuasion, many words, confidence, telling other people what they want to hear, bribery, thinly veiled threats.
• Narcissism and Political Maneuvering: Lower on the social hierarchy? They'll dump on you without hesitation, as much and as often as possible, without even giving it a second thought because you just don't matter to them. Equal on the social hierarchy? They'll talk to you as an equal if you're in the same clique, but usually heap deprecating humor on you as an attempt to jockey for higher social status, and when you get justifiably upset they'll say you are "thin skinned." Higher on the social hierarchy? Will suck up to you without hesitation because you're their God of the moment that serves their ultimate purpose (more goodies for me me me), but ultimately their God is themselves. In all cases it's all about what they can get for themselves, and they're always jockeying for the top of the heap, despite the fact many people have grown out of that mentality and want nothing to do with it.
• Doubletalk and Being A Snake: Bullying? That's just smart political ambition. Communism? That's just you scratch my back and I scratch yours. Stealing? That's just Communism. Around and around it goes. If you can't convince em, confuse em, while you pull a sneaky on them by one hell of a betrayal. Everything, really, is a front; the fancy clothes, the status, the money - they're really in it for all they can get, and don't give a damn if it's objectively right or wrong. Even objective things like right and wrong and the truth itself are just toys to be played with. Do anything at all to get away with getting what you want. Stoop as low as you want, as long as no one is watching. That's Boomer 101.
• Blatant Ageism: This is the oddest archetype. It cuts across all boundaries of skin color, gender, creed, nationality, and background culture. Boomers will hoot and holler about how the young are the worst thing ever, the youth are to blame for everything, the elderly (from their perspective) are too old and out of touch, but then they actually expect and demand respect from younger generations. Because they for some reason inherently believe that advanced age = worthy of respect. The longer you've managed to live on this planet, and often survive based on the efforts of everyone except for you, apparently the more respect you are entitled to. Why? I have no idea.
• Sloth: I'm not talking mere laziness. I'm talking ordering everyone around to work double and triple time to cover your butt at work, at home, and everywhere else. I'm talking the Deadly Sin of Sloth. It's definitely taken a personal toll on everyone I know. We are sooooooooo tired. This particularly covers intellectual labor. For some reason, I suppose they were told that obedience is virtue and that all they had to do was obey and they'd be good people, but they balk at thinking for themselves a lot of the time. Or, they think for themselves for a little while, and then when that gets tiresome, they just stop. And rest on their laurels, and congratulate themselves for being so original back in the day.
• Dehumanizing Others: neglecting to notice that to dehumanize anyone is to dehumanize yourself
• The real question is why did they get away with so much of this behavior for so long, with such an enormous scope of resultant consequences? There seem to be a few reasons. Firstly, there are many of them, and it's impossible in most cases to fight off a unified clique or mob, so they win at the numbers game. Secondly, this is their time. Human society is structured such that people in the roughly 60 to 80 year old age bracket have the most power and influence, for some unknown reason, even in countries where youth and originality is respected, such as the United States. And thirdly, their parents trusted them enough to set up power structures for them to step into when they came of age, and then they did (and often betrayed said parents in the process). Finally, younger generations don't know how to fight to get these cretins out of their lives permanently and out of every position of power, and often straight into prison, because the justice system has become so corrupt under well, Boomers. So this is what we, as a country (and apparently worldwide) have to deal with. When dealing with sociopathic malignant narcissists. We call them Boomers... but they're called different names in every age of history, such as dictator, tyrant, and toddler. Perhaps there are some answers there, in history. And psychology.

Older Stuff On This Page

• No matter what sort of toxic internet debate you are reading or getting into that you never even wanted to get into in the first place, especially of the kind that makes you feel like you're losing IQ points every few minutes you're reading because it's just so fucking stupid and keeps getting more and more stupider, it is made infinitely better by playing a loop of Spanish Flea by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass.
• Yes, it's toxic for people to be anti-abortion as a blanket statement that will supposedly fix everything. But were you aware that every time someone says "I am pro choice" as if that blanket statement solves everything too, here is the quiet part not being said out loud: children that were accidentally conceived whose parents considered aborting them could have been a mistake and it may have been better if they had never been born. What a message. Especially when people do say the quiet part out loud and say that children ruin the lives of their mothers, of women, of single women, of parents, etc., consigning them to a lifetime of poverty and hardship etc.
• Both 1000% pro and anti abortion people? Missed a very important point. Quality of life for all children and teens. Going round and round the mulberry bush to point the finger at one another could be time better spent doing things like putting rapists and pedos in jail, fixing the adoption and child protective services issues, fixing issues with our justice system and education system, getting comprehensive sex ed to be a federally mandated course taught in all schools, getting parenting and home ec to be a federally mandated course taught in all schools, subsidizing condoms and preventative birth control and oh yeah prenatal/postnatal health care and pediatric health care, ensuring rights for both female and male parents to ensure the process of raising a kid doesn't make them lose their jobs and that they get sufficient paid time off, allowing bounty hunters to track down deadbeat parents to make them pay child support, and making it way less expensive to raise kids, but not more than one or two. Population is an issue. Besides, it was never about the kids or about justice anyway, but about power tripping by making other people feel bad so you could feel morally superior.
• It's pretty clear that Boomers never wanted Millenials and younger generations to exist at all. Yes, of course, usual caveat, not all baby boomers, just Boomers.
• Maybe the real reason so many Boomers are pro-life nowadays to a toxic extent (as in, no abortions ever, no matter what) is because they desperately wanted abortions back in the day due to their malignant sociopathy and narcissism and couldn't admit it to themselves, so now they are like "if we can't have nice things, neither can you"
• For a while there I was convinced that getting idiots out of this country and into Russia would be a great idea. You know what? I was wrong. No country deserves our refuse. They'll only hurt the innocent anywhere they go. No, we deal with them here.
• Atlas Shrugged on one level can be interpreted as a story about those with "merit" aka mental and physical power taking care of "the weak" until one day they realize they're being used and decide to fuck off to Galt's Gulch. It can also be interpreted as a story about those who are good people getting conned into taking care of bad people, until one day they don't. If you've never read it and are say, in a bad family situation dealing with newly revealed antivaxxers expecting the same social benefits as before, or something like that, it's worth a read. There are layers to the book and its meaning. If anyone gets the same things out of it as even one other person, or thinks it's supposed to be some kind of new creed or dogma, they don't understand the book at all.
• New insight as to why feminism isn't good and disempowers women: it encourages groupthink. A famous Feminist author mentions that women need a tribe, a group to belong to. This is believed to lead to independence and self-esteem. But that's not true. Indeed, Ayn Rand was correct in her quote: "In order to say 'I love you,' you first have to say 'I.'" The ONLY way for women and indeed anyone to achieve any level of freedom, self-respect, independence and even personal power is to be satisfied with being alone. If you can't be happy when you're alone, then you will never know true freedom.
• I was recently looking at slow cookers, and apparently back in the day they had lead glaze and the rules against this only changed in later years. Considering the immense popularity of slow cooking when the Boomers were growing up and cooking for themselves (lazily), this could be a major reason why they became... well, like Roman citizens. Toss out your old slow cookers, people. Other major sources of lead exposure: leaded gasoline, lead paint in buildings older than 1970 or so, old crystalware such as decanters for wine, lead pipes in a city's water system, lead in water due to lack of additives (this happened in Flint, obviously, but our whole system of plumbing nationwide is suspect).
• If you are a Baby Boomer or older, you need to run, not walk, to your doctor's office and get tested for levels of lead and seek chelation therapy, or your chances of lead poisoning and its horrible symptoms are rather high. And for the record, the substance in common use for chelation therapy, disodium EDTA, is not poisonous and is a common food additive, though administration of chelation therapy requires a very good doctor as it can be problematic if they don't know what they're doing.
• There is a rather good chance that a majority of the world's population has some kind of heavy metal poisoning, due to our lack of foresight using toxic substances as a species.
• A lot of what people worry about to the point of obsession and ruining their own lives: not important. No, your age is not important, your lack of funds, your lack of job, your lack of friends, your lack of popularity and fame and riches and so-called success. You know what would make me, personally, perfectly happy right now? A lack of chronic physical pain. And physical mobility would be the icing on the cake of that. That right there is more freedom than I've had in ten years. Don't have that? Maybe you have a chance of getting that; find a good doctor, a pain specialist, a good medical network and possibly use the healthcare.gov website to help pay for it (it covers mental health care now!) You have freedom from physical chronic pain and mobility? Then you have the potential for perfect happiness too. See a doctor to ensure you don't have chronic pain masquerading as a mental illness; also see if popping an OTC painkiller like tylenol makes you think more clearly and improves your mood (that's a strong indication you have chronic pain and don't even realize it). Then, see a therapist, get on some happy pills if you are dealing with anxiety or depression or something else; if you aren't happy then you can fix it. I know this because I know for certain that some things are real blocks to happiness (i.e. chronic pain) and some things are not. Live well, my dude. Don't squander your life on wishing for what you don't have, when what you do have is actually great. Don't take your blessings for granted. Savor them.
• There is so much overlap between white supremacist terrorists and antivaxx terrorists these days that it would not surprise me if they are indeed the same thing. They share so many commonalities that they're like catdog.

Versus Communism

Communism is by definition a system where the most unscrupulous, sociopathic people (read: evil people) gain the most benefits from it. Capitalism is by definition a system where the most greedy, money-hungry people for whatever reason gain the most benefits from it; they may or may not be evil. If Capitalism goes unregulated it becomes a de facto oligarchy or monarchy, which is what both the United States and Communism were created to get rid of in the first place. This has been demonstrated in various historic contexts.

• The currency in Capitalism is money, and therefore the greediest and most conniving win, unless they rig the system so much it's no longer actually Capitalist which is what we've got today. The currency in Communism is less obvious but it exists. Communism's currency is popularity; social status, and therefore the most manipulative, sociopathic, two-faced, and conniving win. I think I'd rather take my chances with Capitalism. It's the difference between the assholes in a Capitalist society going "I have more money than you and more money = better than, I am superior to you" versus the assholes in a Communist society saying "I have more people agreeing with me than you and my own cult of personality goin' here, therefore I am better than you." Both yikes, but at least I don't have a really enormous mob all thinking and saying the same things coming after me for not believing in their cult's ideas in Capitalist societies as much, just a handful of super-rich assholes. In other words I would rather face down the Ferengi than the Borg.
• Communism, Intersectionality, Fascism, Cancel Culture, Censorship, Discrimination (modern-day Conservatism), and Racism share the same roots. But since no one else will say the quiet part out loud, I will. All of these philosophies state lofty goals out loud - love for your brother, equity, equality, fairness, safety, comfort. But the real reason they have such allure is that their actual function is to oppress or enslave others so you can get ahead with less work, because you feel entitled to better than what you've got and you'll force other people to give it to you, damn it. Better yet, you can do all that while still feeling good about yourself as you lie to yourself in BIG CAPITAL LETTERS AND SLOGANS. And a lot of other people will jump on your fucking bandwagon to help you oppress the other guy while pretending to be free of all impurity, perfect, and a victim. There's no more to it than that.
• These are all philosophies of passing one's personal responsibility for their own fate onto someone else as much as possible. Hence, the creation of scapegoats, the constant blame and shame, the victim mentality, whataboutisms, "NO U" that both right and left wing are indulging in. What people don't understand these days is that when you give up your personal responsibility and blame someone else for all of the problems in your life, you lose a lot of freedom and personal sovereignty. It's not a good way to live.
• What a lot of people these days don't understand is that they think they like Socialism and Communism, and that Capitalism is the evil. Wrong. They hate badly done Socialism, Capitalism without the proper rule of law and justice, and all Communism, and don't understand Capitalism. They just mixed up their labels. In fact, Communism is not even good on paper. Let me explain. You see how good people are getting exploited by bad ones because they keep giving and bad people take and take and take? You see all these people getting unearned benefits? How the rich are getting richer, and the poor getting poorer, the Boomers collecting on everything, taxes screwing us all, and everyone getting a minimum wage that actually keeps us poorer than asking for spare change on the street and setting up GoFundMes? That is a direct result of Socialism and of Communism. How? The bastards set themselves up networks and systems to keep them and their buddies rich without actually earning a cent of it through work. You want that for us? Wait ten minutes and see how that works out. It'll be exactly the same. What happened over the past 80 years is that instead of understanding that Socialism is best used in moderation and with wisdom in tandem with Capitalism, for things like good infrastructure and education, people demonized all of it while simultaneously also creating far far too much of it in an ill-considered way. Case in point, Social Security, unemployment benefits, and quite a few redundant government agencies. That's where a lot of that 40% of your paycheck plus income tax goes. And if you take a very close look at the stock market, and corporations, you will realize that they have become Communist. How so? Because the corporations ARE the government now, and they own everything. And frankly, since they're working in a very stupid manner because of the nature of groupthink (take a look at corporate governance, it'll make your head spin; also it is by definition Communist since a corporation is legally considered a collective effort, not an individual's and no one person is ever held responsible for their actions) and round-table discussions where "we must all benefit and to hell with ethics" (welcome to Communism), they're even working against their own interests while they're destroying the planet. No fucking difference as to if it was the other way around, with the government owning the corporations and means of production. Effectively, an oligarchy in either case, and unfortunately Communism makes oligarchies by default because of the tragic way in which it is set up: suckers get parasitized by the worst people who then figure out how to get as much power as possible within the system. Hence the need for ending Citizens United, taking corporations out of politics, making lobbying illegal, having taxes and nothing else pay for political campaigns and having them all run online only, and ending monopolies. This de facto death of Capitalism happened so long ago that people of my generation (Millenials) have never actually seen a Capitalist society. In a Socialist definition or Communist definition system, where everyone is "entitled" to everyone else's stuff, all folks who work hard actually get the short end of the stick, because the way those systems are set up by default means the assholes get all of the benefits. Having a government, or a group of people, or a collective, manage anything at all means that those who are the most idealistic about human nature and the most trusting of others get hit with the worst conditions by those who exploit them. To each, according to their ability, from each either as much as they can give or as much as they're willing to give, means that those who lie the most about how much they're able to work (boss, I've got bone spurs, I can't work for the next fifty years!) get the most benefits. Work less, earn more. Sound familiar? The assholes currently on Unemployment without really needing it, or Disability, or Social Security, and the richest people and businesses and corporations working to evade taxes and squeeze their indentured servants for all their work, and bitching about Socialism, are sucking our federal funds away (that's where your taxes are going). And this is not Capitalism. This is not a Capitalist system anymore, it's pretty close to pure Communism in many ways, cancel culture cliques on the far right and left as cases in point. Capitalism actually can be done in a manner that is ethical and good, and some businesses provide excellent examples of this. (I have invested in a few smaller corporations like this, and one thing on WeFunder.) Communism and pure Socialism can NOT. Just look at all the families that hate one another and share every bit of property they have! My point? Capitalism doesn't work if you don't keep a very close eye on it, especially as related to the justice system. But Communism and Socialism are ever so much worse. And let me be blunt: Socialism, Communism, and other notions of not owning private property are all well and good until you meet a bunch of farmers. Who's going to eat the bread they made? Who's going to ensure that the good dirt and tilth they created stays that way? The ungrateful bastards not working the land and expecting unearned benefits and special privileges. Go watch that one episode of One Punch Man. And the final point I have that we are living in a society of Socialist and Communist thinkers is that so many people are not thinking for themselves at all, and it's killing us. Common ownership of the means of production in the end also extends to common ownership of ideas. It's like doing group projects in school or going to committee meetings, or having a mob run amok. Groupthink is the special province of pure Communism and Socialism. See what that's done.
• Communism, and corporations, separate individual people from the consequences of their actions by legally mashing them together into a "collective." This does not work, because in order to have a society in which people are not killed by the worst among us, like that guy in American Psycho, you have to immediately discipline criminals. Otherwise you get anarchy, where only the "strong" survive but in reality that's the people who are lucky, physically strong, mentally strong, and straight up evil. As Bones says in Star Trek, "evil usually wins against good unless good is very very careful." Evil doesn't have moral qualms holding it back from doing whatever it takes to get whatever it wants, though it's guaranteed a miserable and horrid life (and worse). Worse: you can very easily be completely evil and not even realize it, thanks to assorted programming and ideology, and then when you start succeeding in life you think it's because you've been a good person but in reality, far far from it. Then the place starts looking like a land war in Asia, or feudal Japan, or the Dark Ages in Europe, and we've already tried that, thanks, it wasn't a good time. You want a good place, happiness, help with your problems, artists, creative people, weirdos, innovation, parties, fun and enjoyment, amusement parks, National Parks, good ideas, and so on? Then you need the "weak" people around. For that you need freedom, and for that you need safety, and for that you need to keep the creeps locked up. You will not get such a thing in any Authoritarian or Communist state. It's too easy for people to suck up and pretend to be perfect angels in those systems, and get away with their crimes. Also chew on this: without justice for all, there is no real freedom. Because there's no real safety.
• Actually I grew up in places and attending schools that adored Communism. It always took the guise of "love thy neighbor way too much," "give to others before you give to yourself," "share everything," "trust the group's beliefs," "be nice in order to be worthy of anything," and "always think of others before yourself" "OR YOU ARE EVIL." You know what that's like? Child abuse. I endured a hell of a lot of child abuse in such systems. Not only that, but all of the assholes took my stuff, made me sick, and I almost died. Why? I tried to be a good person and do the right thing. Also, I was gullible. And that's not all. The crime rate in these places went through the roof, especially of spousal abuse and child abuse, but it was never reported because "oh that's just our neighbor, peace and love man, follow the rules of social conduct, authority must be respected to maintain order, forgive everything." It even went so far as to say that seeking justice was revenge, and revenge is never right because it's selfish and to be selfless is better, so just let it be. (The school system does all of this and more, especially with regards to gaslighting children into accepting their slavery and subservience to the collective and the authorities that maintain the collective, a major reason why I insist homeschooling must become a thing.) There were a lot of Communist agencies and groups in these places as well where groupthink was the norms, things like certain charities and organizations structured as collectives in their leadership. Guess what they did to me? More child abuse. Because they, in their infinite wisdom and groupthink, decided to get what they wanted without thinking it through individually but as a collective instead. And since they were a collective, no one was held responsible for the consequences of their actions since they decided on things as a group. Sound familiar? Corporate governance. You say Capitalism ruined the world because of corporations? Wrong. Communism ruined the world, directly via corporations.
• Because of the way that Communism is structured, it means that good people won't feel entitled to other people's stuff. But bad people will feel entitled to everything that everyone else has, all the time, just like the toddler dictum. What's mine is mine, and what's yours is also mine, and what I gave you earlier but want now is MINE and if you tell me I might not be that great a person for wanting it all, then you're wrong.
• Another thing: Communism is perpetually a circlejerk of people telling each other that no matter what, we love you, you are great, positivity is all we need. And although that's a really nice notion, it doesn't quite work when you're trying to foster a community of people who take responsibility for self-improvement, for disciplining themselves, or for anything else. Which also explains why it's a really appealing philosophy for people who have never been told "no" and made to understand why they were denied the thing they wanted.
• In the end, Capitalism is the system we have created in order to avoid ruining our lives. It isn't that great. We do not have a better system of government or the economy as of yet. Grow your own food, DIY as much as you can, be as independent as you can, see what you can do to improve conditions for yourself and your community, and start there, using trial and error to see what works. Maybe you can come up with something better. But we've already tried Communism. It does not work. On that note, see Science for a good way to determine what works and what doesn't, and it explains why "splendid human reasoning" ain't enough.
• Here are some specific ways to fix the problems in Capitalism Fix Capitalism
• It has been my experience and that of everyone I know who has lived in a Communist situation, be that as a microcosm in a small place or family or a country or a school, that it was never about helping others at all. That's all newspeak. It was always about being as selfish as humanly possible because pretending to care about others both to others and yourself gave you permission deep down to be completely, ruthlessly narcissistic. You don't need to take responsibility for anything. You're absolutely perfect and if anything goes wrong, it's the fault of the collective, certainly not your fault. After all, if you lie to yourself, you can get away with anything and pretend you're the good guy and in a Communist system you are rewarded generously for it. This is done by trying to bitch at other people while pretending you're an angel and if you do it well enough, they do all your work for you (because "others" are God or something). Thus all the backseat drivers and people who are good at manipulation behind the scenes, namely the criminals and scum of society, not only avoid prison but become the government. I don't know if this is by design or an accidental inclusion into Communism, but I do know that it is seeded into Communism from the philosophy on up and only gets worse over time. All of the greediest, most selfish, evil, narcissistic money-hungry popularity contest-winning two faced jerks I've known were either into Communism, from a Communist place, or the sort of parasitic folks who would love Communism just because it would give them unearned benefits with no work. We are talking about a system that rewards evil and punishes good. That is Communism. I'll even go so far as to say that it's likely Putin is a result of Communism, not a cause of it.
• Intersectionality is a derivative or thinly-veiled disguise of Communism, which is why I despise it so much.
• The Democrat party is veering dangerously close to Communism these days as well, and the far-right's bleatings about it were ignored because they were absolute buffoons. However, as the saying goes, they were out of line but they were right.
• The best description of Communism I have ever heard is that of the human centipede. This analogy came from someone who grew up under Communism. Study it, consider it.
• The more I study Communism the more I understand that it is the basest kind of degradation in existence. Other kinds of slavery cause you to be a slave in body. This makes you a slave within your very soul. A slave to other people, a "higher cause," whatever. What about you? You gonna pour from that empty cup? You won't have a damn thing left if you let Communism taint your mind. It is the atheist's version of being an evangelical fundamentalist moron.
• I just realized that even in small families and tight-knit groups and community, if you don't have private property, privacy, ownership of yourself, respect for one another's privacy, and an understanding that each person is different, disaster is the result. The notion of "we are all one" is all fine and dandy until you realize that you're trying to grow an orchard of apples that all look the same, taste the same, and come out of cubical trees. Have you not noticed this planet lately? Have you not looked at the sky and the trees and the diversity of life here, the chaos, the weird? Would you like everything to look the same? How much would you sacrifice for an easy life? Essentially you're trying to create a bunch of units instead of human beings - with no conflict or war or poverty in theory, but with no soul or what makes us human either. Because "we are all one" means "we are all the same" and also means that any kind of difference is totally not tolerated because literally any kind of difference is a threat to the collective. All of the Borg episodes in Star Trek cover this. Realistically speaking here is what happens in a place where privacy, private property, and individuality are not valued: people share the nail clippers and razors (say hello to my little friend, Hepatitis C!). Group living looks like the lyrics of that Modest Mouse song Paper Thin Walls. People share all the food (say hello to my little friend, Hepatitis B! also this is something warned about in travel books for people going to China). People share all the needles for vaccination, which are then boiled in vessels til the needles warp so they can be reused, which hurts. Untrained laymen become the go-to guys for giving you a vasectomy (see: A Barefoot Doctor's Manual for the directions intended for the layman, fun fact, I read that thing and boy did it ever not provide enough detail) People allow themselves to stagnate because if we are all one and must take care of others before ourselves, then no one makes an effort at self-improvement or understanding themselves, and morality goes downhill. Children and layabouts are spoiled and become entitled, not knowing any better. They grow up and it starts looking like that world in A Clockwork Orange. Some of the children become like Mao or Trump. Indiscriminate sex is considered a form of self-respect because people have no boundaries or sense of self. Share love, free love, accept everything, etc. No one truly loves anybody or anything, and everyone is kind of blank. Because when you sacrifice everything to ensure the collective endures, there's literally nothing left. Not a damn thing. Just a hall of mirrors. In order to say "I love you," you first need to say "I." In order to consent to anything, you need to have an ego; would you like to have crimes committed against you because you don't want to say no? What's the point of having a relationship with a person that does not exist? What's the point of existing if YOU do not exist? What's the point in living in the equivalent of a padded-wall mental prison? Heck, what's the point of living if life is so damn dull? You really want to be a carbon copy person? And here is the real kicker: no one actually does, not deep down, so all the doublethink and doubletalk and self-delusion creates cognitive dissonance and people become truly vicious, nasty, and evil. Such is the fate of those who do not honor the self. Such is the fate of those who do not value freedom.
• This says nothing about the horrors of the USSR and pre-trade-agreement-with-the-US China. Have you ever actually met any immigrants from these regions? Because if not, you should talk to them. Also, in order to understand Cuba, it's probably best to speak to Cubans who immigrated or are visiting. Same goes for any other Communist country, boy am I tired of people saying "but Communism works in small places, it works in this country, it's great!" Oh really. Name me one example you have seen in person. Chances are it'll be an artist's collective where they have their own paintings, which by default is not Communist at all. If it was, they'd be painting paintings all together on one canvas and it would look like shit, and they'd all leave eventually save for the mentally ill. Someone would then have to shut it down and get them some help.
• Another major problem in Communism: the individual is not valued for their individuality but for what they can contribute to "others." The whole group is comprised of people such as this. Therefore, life is cheap. In fact, life is not valued at all. Everyone is quite easily replaceable. So what this results in is quantity over quality. No one needs to work on themselves; they think they can just rely on everyone else. They can slack off all they want, and everyone does, so they all sit in a stew and stagnate. No one has any kind of self-discipline, except for those that do, which work extra hard to ensure the rest of the horde doesn't kill everyone through stupidity, and are thus punished through extra workload and backseat driving. The collective slowly or quickly spirals downwards, carrying everyone affected by them down with them. Until some individual comes along and tries to lift the whole bunch due to original ideas like "hey, you should probably not burn your trash, it's causing air pollution and too many people are getting cancer." Then what do they do? Either force that individual to work themselves to death making that solution a reality for the whole collective, or beat the shit out of that individual for not being just like everyone else. Again, because diversity threatens the cohesion of the collective. It's "dangerous."
• Yet another major problem in Communism and many religions: the ultimate form of being a good human being is considered to be someone who is the opposite of materialistic, someone who gives up all material goods in favor of enlightenment or so-called virtue (really martyrdom). Your stuff is considered worthless. Eating is considered worthless. Life is considered worthless. If you give these all up, only then will you be worthy. "But this is Communism taken to an extreme!" some Communists would cry. Is that so? What happens when the shared property goes to shit (as it does, thanks to the tragedy of the commons), and you have just the bare minimum of your own in order to live a frugal virtuous life? Nothing saved up, nothing extra laying around? People. Die.
• Here is an interesting argument about how Hitler would have been a Hufflepuff, which actually illustrates why Communism is so dangerous The Sorting Hat In Real Life Tumblog
• Communism also infantilizes people. Instead of people taking responsibility for themselves and taking care of themselves, they expect everyone else to do it for them. They wind up expecting everything to be just handed to them on a silver platter (like Boomers). So you can't tell this sort of person to just grow the fuck up. Once Communism invades their philosophy, in goes the Communism, out goes the brain, and they now expect you to ruin your life to cater to them. Yeah, "to each according to his need from each according to his ability" but they're smart, you understand? They aren't suckers and they're gonna exploit the system, and you, for all it's worth, all while wearing a smile and pretending to love you. Social climbing and backstabbing is precisely what will make you profit in a Communist system, and the worse of a person you are in terms of being infantile and not being able to take care of yourself but manipulative and abusive, the better you fare in such a system.
• There is actually nothing stopping you from creating a means of production, in fact many of these, that are Socialist, in a Capitalist democracy. Get some friends, family, and like minded people together. Make community gardens, upcycling spaces, trade or hobby guilds, makerspaces, hackerspaces, shared farm equipment centers, community centers, libraries (or support yours as much as able), garage workshops, dachas, "village commons" of land you all own, etc. Share desperately needed information too, that's a commodity, and the "means of production" is experience, imagination and things like that. Nothing is fucking stopping you. Money? Yeah well if you're able bodied you can scavenge and scrounge basically everything for free with your chevrolegs. Can you do that in a Communist place? Pretty much a guaranteed "no." Der Kommissar will have your head on a platter if you try that, back to the communal farm with you. As for the people bitching about wisely considered Socialist things like this, most of them have very large supportive families (see why religion tells you to have so many kids?), assorted unearned benefits from the government and social benefits such as being male and white and in attendance of some religious service or other regularly, and/or inheritances of money, jobs, and/or land, Socialist benefits for sure, not necessarily ethical ones, and so therefore are total hypocrites.
• Best way to create a horde of willing slaves, who are willing to do literally anything for you? Convince them Communism is a great idea, and that you will help them with it. Or start some other kind of cult, such as any religion, or a specific house of worship. Lead your flock by smiling, and smiling, and being a villain.
• If you define yourself by a clique, creed, culture, group, or other label, you're veering dangerously close to groupthink and losing all kinds of freedoms if not all of yours. That old saying "if you label me, you negate me" really, really holds true. Watch your ass.
• When it comes right down to it, the education system in the United States, and possibly other countries, is fundamentally Communist. In fact, most Boomers are also fundamentally Communist. So when I say "fuck the educational system," and "ok, Boomer," what I really mean is "fuck Communism."
• One of the things I've noticed over the years is that the people infected with some flavor of Communism or its related ideologies such as Intersectionality would give their left tit (or their left nut) to have an imagination again, but they can't admit it to themselves. Imagination is the greatest treasure of the human race and deep down they know it, but Communism does not allow for it at all without severe punishment. They are walking, talking wads of envy and misery. So they shit all over anyone who has an imagination (or even an original idea) in an attempt to make themselves feel better.
• Greed still exists just as much in Communism as it does in Capitalism. One good example? "It's mine, it's mine it's all mine" related to the worlds of ideas. For instance, copyrighting memes and copyrighting phrases like "hon" (covered in Kitchen Nightmares). Or, taking cancel culture to an extreme and saying that no one has the right to anything in what you call your culture. Such as the Gods. YOU or other PEOPLE own the GODS, yeah okay.
• They say Capitalism rewards greed, but what they don't realize is that Communism rewards evil. They each also reward self-delusion in their own way, but that's the major difference.
• In the end Communism exists because of fear, greed, laziness, self-hate, and envy. It's shit.
• My personal reason for disliking Communism so much is because you can't be yourself in such a system. You really can't. Every deviation from the "norm" of the day results in crushingly huge opposition and a subsequent crushing of the spirit. You get tortured half to death for being even a tiny bit original let alone actually true to yourself. Everything outside of you looks the same and is a wasteland, and there really is no freedom. Just an eternal hall of mirrors, a borg hive, a cancel culture mob. Only the difference between this and Fascism is that in Fascism you wind up subservient to just one person or big idea, and in Communism you wind up having some kind of notion you're being a subversive free thinker by following along with the crowd aka "loving one another." But each and every other person is just a copypasted version of someone else. It's soul-achingly lonely, and extremely depressing. Plus just as restrictive as Fascism. No freedom, despite all the talk of equal rights and equality and love for one another and all that - it's just doubletalk. Actually try it and the mob of "free thinkers" will cancel you. Just for being different.
• It has also been my experience that people who spend long enough in a Communist system get what is called in my religion "soul loss." You look in their eyes but there's nothing there. They reach out for things on impulse, like zombies, but there's no real reason for anything they do and good and evil are both irrelevant to them. They exist, but it's not worth the existing to them. They want bread and circus, they want their basic needs met, and beyond that they are beyond caring about anything at all. They reach out for the biggest pleasure available to them, which is to do evil. It's really quite like that guy in The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler. And yeah, it really is that spooky.
• Xi Jinping China's New Jade Emperor An article that says everything about China and its political system is absolutely glorious, the best thing ever, really great. Not a single thing is wrong, not a cloud in the sky. Oh my fucking God.
• 7/20/22 You know what? The major reason that Communism is a horrible idea is illustrated to you if you have ever lost someone special. As in, if they passed away. The human bereaved heart knows that the one they lost is not replaceable. Not in a million years, not in any way shape or form, there is nothing and no one on this planet that could ever take their place. (One good example I can think of is David Bowie.) I mean, if you're not capable of loving someone that deeply and grieving for real when they're gone, then you wouldn't understand. But I think most people do. We are not equal to the point of being replaceable cogs in a machine, not even close. There is no one-size-fits-all religion, philosophy, or lifestyle for us. This is a comforting illusion we have given ourselves as a species to enforce social cohesion as a survival instinct (form tribe! form tribe!) but that doesn't make it true. We are not equal and we do not have homogenous needs, motivations, goals, desires, and souls. We are diverse, we are weird, and every last one of us really is a special snowflake. If you don't think so, I don't think you're capable of ever truly loving someone.
• 7/20/22 Corollary: it is important to promote diversity instead of social cohesion at the cost of all else in a democracy in order to allow people to just be themselves, and not fucked with. Of course, you can take it too far, exhibit A, antivaxxers and "muh freedoms" and "I HAVE MY RIGHTS" as mentioned in that movie Dirty Harry which see
• 8/18/22 How this all plays out in Capitalism versus Communism based ideologies is interesting from a psychology point of view. In places where Capitalism is lauded, what you get is people punishing other people for being poor. In places where Communism is lauded, what you get is people punishing other people for not being poor ENOUGH. If you're just over the poverty line, no matter by how little, fuck you, richie! And in both places, what you get is a bunch of people absolutely worshipping the almighty Dollar. Fail to worship right along with them and they'll say "you work for the other side aaaa!!!" and people wonder why I don't like socializing.
• 3/24/23 It's been my experience that how this plays out IRL is that people who are unsatisfied with life and hate themselves are really attracted to Communism. Why? Because you don't have to take responsibility for anything. Ever. "How dare you ask me to take responsibility? Capitalist pig! Nothing is my fault, it's because I'm oppressed!" Then these guys will have the audacity to claim they are entitled to you working FOR them so you work for two. Incidentally it's the same exact idea behind Fascism, where daddy state takes care of you by crushing the other guys. They're each others' natural enemies, and claim that the folks in the middle are on the other side because "if you're not with us you're against us" and everyone in the middle works triple time to keep the whole system of shit running. Spoiled children.

VS Excessive Socialism

• Not all Socialism is bad. I mean, roads, infrastructure, clean water and air, clean environment, all of these are technically Socialist. Not everything needs to be sold, patented, copyrighted, hoarded.
• It is this type of Socialism that I think needs to be watched out for: you know when you have a little brother, or possibly a few people in your work assignment group at school, and the parent or teacher in charge says "you need to watch out for your little brother" or "you need to finish this project well," and then little brother proceeds to be an ornery little shit or the group decides to not work at all, and then the authority figure says "tough titty, you need to clean up their mess and work for the entire bunch while they rest up, just get used to it" and then the other folks laugh at you cause they are just getting away with coasting while you work yourself sick? That's the kind of Socialism we need to end.
• The distinguishing line between excessive and non-excessive Socialism is entitlement. Boomers benefited the most from Socialist policies and continue to benefit. Watch them. Let that inform your understanding of Socialism and its consequences.

Couple random thoughts

• I say by all means, make tight knit groups that share some property and means of production (not all of it; everyone should have their own stuff!) if you like, but do not let them grow beyond that small number of people. Because when even one bad apple invades such a peaceful place, they exploit the shit out of it, like the Boomers cannibalized their parents and ruined things for literally every single subsequent generation and the entire planet. (The character of such people is notorious for being a person that "smiles, and smiles, and is a villain," aka is really good at pretending to be a perfect little angel and wear that mask to get the full benefits.) In fact, if Feminist Witch and Goddess literature is to be believed, this might be how patriarchal religions in their exiled tribes of marauders came around and fucked everything up in matriarchal peaceful collaborative societies via warfare, rape, deception, and other such things such as rewriting mythology and history. For instance, how Rhea the mother of Zeus somehow just "disappeared." And how Aphrodite, the literal personification of love and lust which makes men weak and helpless, became demonized as "Lucifer, the morning star, the devil, all that is evil" etc. etc. Thus creating this paradigm of misery, slavery, and exploitation for women, children, and the weak, especially through religion (which in and of itself is so ridiculously Socialist and harmful to the innocent, and these two things are not unrelated). Which in and of itself is a system of unearned benefits much like Socialism and Communism.
• The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must. The only way to solve this problem is to create systems of government, law, and order, that take the worst of us and lock them up or kill them depending on the offense. The only peace and freedom you can have is within a system of government that is constructed to deal with humankind at its worst, not encourage it to be its best. Otherwise, bad. Want a repeat of 2020?
• When you put your faith in something other than yourself, you are giving that something your power and personal sovereignty, as well as your freedom. Since you are also giving away your personal responsibility for your actions and their consequences, this might seem like an easy out, but I've got news for you. That's not how it works. Those who give away their power for the sake of an easier life usually wind up with neither. In practical terms, those who refuse to take responsibility for their own actions because they put their faith in a scapegoat or some other agency that gives them "justification" for what they're doing are usually both powerless and miserable.
• It is no wonder that so many people turned to Satanism over the years. What with Boomers and people just as evil projecting their own negativity everywhere but into the mirror and refusing to accept the consequences of their actions or responsibility for anything, plus creating a false dichotomy between their version of Christianity (a sick, twisted, and evil cult if there ever was one, not actual Christianity but the hypocritical pseudo-Christianity so common today) and Satanism, people probably didn't know any better for many years and decided "hey fuck it, maybe this is where I can get my freedom." It's not actually true that that's the only way you can achieve freedom and fight back against toxic twisted religion, but it explains a lot of why a lot of people chose that.

VS Feminism, but not women's rights

• tl;dr So much of it is built on a threat narrative that it is doomed to crumble. Anything built on a threat narrative is born to die. This is because it is a universally acknowledged truth, even if subconsciously understood as opposed to said in words, that to define yourself based on someone else's perception of you is inherently dehumanizing. Moreover, defining yourself based on someone else's perception of you completely removes from you responsibility for your actions, the ability to define yourself and create a life for yourself on your own terms, and your personal sovereignty, as you have just taken your power and given it to someone else. You sacrifice independence for blaming and shaming. And that's freedom?
• Some definition of terms.
• Women's rights: Feminism without delusions of grandeur. The "radical" notion that women are human and are entitled to equal rights and responsibilities.
• Feminism: the notion that women have been oppressed for so long they are now entitled to whatever they want, whenever they want it. A lot of Feminists will claim that no, they really mean the original definition and Feminism is the same as women's rights. Their actions and all of their other words and beliefs very clearly show us otherwise. Sure, they may have been that way many decades ago, but they sure aren't now, and they have no one to blame for that but themselves.
• 7/19/22 I finally found, after a whole fucking month of searching (and I'm pretty good at research) what seems like a decent copy of the actual transcript of Roe v. Wade legal proceedings, here on WikiSource. There has been precious little logic or sense in either pro-life or pro-choice stuff, with the arguments provided by each all essentially boiling down to "OTHER SIDE BAD!" and that's obviously worthless. First indication there was sense in this Supreme Court ruling: mandating a pregnancy to continue infringes on the liberty of the mother, as well as her ability to provide for herself financially, which denies her 14th amendment rights as a citizen of the United States. I didn't know. I highly doubt anyone else of my generation or younger had any idea either. So "OTHER SIDE BAD" is what passes for advocacy and education these days. Great. Here's the Opinion of the Court on that issue.
• 3/16/23 Roe vs. Wade Overturn Implications Discussed on Reddit Guess where I finally found it? r/AskMen. I found absolutely nothing of value anywhere else. I'm very good at researching things but had only found groupthink platitudes about "Roe overturn good" or "Roe overturn bad." In the news. In social media. In private chats. There was not much about it in my medical textbooks! I hope all those folks's karma is delivered in full. As for the so-called Feminists who contributed absolutely zilch to the public understanding of the issue beyond "Roe overturn bad," just take off your badge as a women's rights activist right now. You ain't done shit.
• The mechanism of power is like so: if someone feels threatened by anyone else, and then reacts to that person by over-reliance on cruelty and having power over that person, what's that say about how much power they have of their own? So if say a woman goes on to a construction site to do some work and gets harassed and hazed by her coworkers instead of having the coworkers focus on the job, and she just works harder and better than they do, only to have the site manager fire her because she "isn't a team player," what's that say about the whole team? In short, they don't value merit. And merit is power. Just watch as that woman makes a construction company of her own and crushes the opposition. But this is not limited to female versus male or privileged versus unprivileged, or whatever. It's a power dynamic at play in pretty much every area of life and between every group of people. Watch it go, it's a bigass soap opera, pop popcorn. But I really think that our species (humans) might have turned the corner in terms of ensuring bullshit isn't done as much, because in a lot of places on Earth the paradigm is no longer "do evil and you are glorious" but doing and being evil is the fastest way (in most places) to get thoroughly canceled. An old saying is from the Middle East and it goes like "everyone pees in the pool, but you shouldn't do it off the diving board." It's similar to the notion of how nothing and no one is perfect but despite this everyone knows you shouldn't go off the deep end and go too far. There is a line that defines decent human behavior. Don't cross it.
• Militant feminists these days are extra salty because they know deep down that they are no longer relevant because subsequent generations figured out that human rights and equal rights and freedoms apply to all genders, and younger people are no longer up in arms about gender because they have realized it's a social construct, minus the physical which they have realized does not define them as people since - get this - relying on your physical appearance and circumstances you have been born as to define you as a person is really, really dehumanizing. It did not help that more than a few militant feminists committed literal crimes in the name of Feminism, including shitloads of child abuse. (Anything and everything is seen as justified in the "ends justifies the means" philosophy of "smashing the patriarchy" or whatever.) Seen this in person more times than I could count, ditto all of my Millenial friends, and it was really depressing. So if you're just now getting into the "scene" of being Feminist, maybe you shouldn't, because it's toxic AF. Human rights covers it now and we do not need Feminism any more, just equal rights and booing chauvinism/sexism/misandry whenever it pops up. Unless you live in China, India, Afghanistan, or some other place where toxic masculinity is institutionalized as part of the law and culture.
• Come to think of it, 3/11/22, I think that the Feminists from 70+ years ago wouldn't even recognize this dehumanazing modern-day charade as a movement for women's rights at all. I think there's a pretty good chance they'd be just as shocked and appalled at what it has become as I am. Moreover, if I somehow found myself transported back in time, I would join them. Who wouldn't?
• 5/12/22 You know, a lot of Feminism, particularly in my religion of modern Witchcraft, involves saying that intuition and gut instinct are "feminine" and logic is "masculine." Well, these fools never met my mother. Imagine a female Commander Spock but even more logical and well versed in the art of living well and of being happy. Yet I have never seen anyone, masculine or feminine, ever master all that like she did. Maybe she bucked the trend, maybe there was really no one like her, but what an example no matter what gender you are. Why toss out logic for all women when you have an example like that? I never saw someone face so much adversity and still be happy. It was her logic that pulled her through... that, more than anything else. She tossed out self-pity, she tossed out negativity, she was ruthless with her own weaknesses in her pursuit of happiness and it worked. And she was the nicest person I ever knew.
• Feminism is often nothing more than a primer in how to re-enact Mean Girls. This thinly disguised henhouse pecking-order crap in the end makes you the top of the heap, yeah, so you "win." Climbing the ladder of success by social climbing, manipulation, harming the innocent, and betrayal, and absolutely zero merit, thus making the person at the top of the heap utterly unable to handle the power they achieved effectively and utterly dependent on others to keep the whole house of cards standing, plus disrespected and genuinely hated. And then every other gender laughs at how supposedly women never grew out of the high school mentality. So is that really "winning"? And how exactly is that any different from what men do in organized crime and corporate life? Just look at Donald Trump. Indeed, you could call him the ultimate Feminist. The art of negotiation indeed. In fact, when I read Tarot to see what was going on with him his significator was the Queen of Wands - a "self made woman." Huh. I'll be honest, I am not good enough at Tarot to fully understand the implications of that card for him, maybe you 'get it' better.
• Specific assumptions made by modern-day Feminism which I will refute in the next couple paragraphs: women are by default superior to all other genders as well as gentler and kinder and smarter and wiser and stronger, women always make great mothers, women are worthy of respect simply by existing, the Patriarchy can be blamed for everything wrong with the modern world, women deserve special privileges because they exist, the Women's Liberation/Feminist movement is different in any way from chauvinism, Feminists are always hard workers, women always have merit and never need to prove that they do
• Have you noticed that in pop culture and most of society, especially among younger generations, most folks are disgusted and appalled at "mommy" type things? Haven't you ever wondered why, given that it's pretty unnatural for people to not like their mothers and women who are mothers? Pretty simple. Feminism, and yes it was Feminism, convinced legions of women that existing and being mothers was all they needed to deserve respect. Therefore, they demanded it from everyone without any other reasons to respect them. But that is incorrect. Merely existing is not reason enough for you to be given respect. There are plenty of abominations that exist on this planet which do not deserve and in fact should not have your respect yet they exist. Merely having authority is not enough reason for you to be given respect. Merely being a mother is not reason enough for you to be given respect. Suffering (I went through x hours of labor blah blah blah) is not enough reason to be given respect. Heck, do you respect ME just because I have chronic pain and had a hard life? It would not be fair for me to ask for that from you. Just because children are conditioned to bond to their mothers by instinct does not mean their mothers are necessarily worthy of that devotion, as you can see in abundance on r/raisedbynarcissists and r/raisedbyborderlines. Respect is not something you can demand from anyone else in the same way that you cannot make A Clockwork Orange (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to read the book and watch the movie). Society is sick and tired, really fed up, with being browbeaten into "showing respect" to mothers and women a la how mob bosses receive "respect" from their underlings to avoid being hurt. That isn't respect, and behind the backs of the supermoms and Feminists we have been laughing at women like that, and denigrating them, or at the very least (in my case) wondering "wtf?". It has also further entrenched chauvinism. So how does a woman avoid this nonsense? By being worthy of respect, and really all that requires is being a decent human being and part of that involves having self-respect. Another part of that is not demanding or expecting respect or special privileges by simply existing, but taking care of one's own needs as much as possible, and asking for what one truly needs for the rest. There. And without drama, being like that you will obtain respect from many, and if there are any chauvinists who still treat you like shit, let them get what's coming to them, because they usually have no friends. Plus you can certainly use whatever options you have available to you to deal with the chauvinists in your life, which usually means leaving them in the dust as you go on to be awesome and do awesome things.
• In some, horror at the "mommy" and "empowered woman" stereotype seems to run deeper than that due to abuse at the hands of their own mothers. I'm not sure how prevalent this is, but it seems that disrespect for women and even hatred of women runs deep in at least a few guys I've met thanks to shitty parenting from their mothers. How do we combat this? Criminalization of child abuse, including from parents. Parenthood should not be a sacred cow in the eyes of the law anymore. Child abuse is child abuse, and it does not matter if the child in question is your progeny. Children should not be legally considered the property of their parents, and they must have rights as human beings under the law and legal recourse if things go wrong so they can rule their own destinies, as opposed to being considered de facto slaves under the law. Period.
• A similar issue is notable in many people of my own generation due to public schooling and the power tripping done by unscrupulous female teachers in said system. I have ranted about the public school system in Big Brain Time. My own observation is that mostly female teachers and authority figures were the ones doing the power tripping in my experience and that of most people I know who are my age. In fact, that applies to many authority figures that I met upon growing up. I believe this is because Feminism encouraged women to seek positions of power, and manipulate their way into them, with or without the adequate qualifications that would make it so they had the merit necessary to properly handle each position of power.
• So then how does a woman, or anyone really, achieve any level of self-respect, self-esteem, and self-empowerment despite all of the abuse and social pressures levied at her? By not lying to yourself. It's really as simple and as complicated as that. If other people say you are a certain way and deep down you know it's total bullshit, don't gaslight yourself by buying into it. If other people, even if it's legions, thousands, millions of people, are constantly telling you that you are shit but you know deep down it's not true and/or you know they're being totally irrational, don't buy into it. If you have low self-esteem or mental issues and you realize that those are not rational or logical, such as "I suck" and other negative self-talk, don't buy into it. And if what you think matches up with what a lot of other people are saying, then what you think is suspect. Skepticism is the necessary weapon to break free of the chains of external programming and seek the truth within yourself - who am I? What do I believe to be truly sacred and good? How do I live a good life? Are there any labels that conveniently define me, or are these yet more prisons? Meditation is one way of approaching this truth, and interacting with the world to understand what you believe in - at the heart - is another. And NEVER swallow any ideology or dogma wholesale, not even mine. This way you empower yourself and achieve freedom. That's my take on things.
• When I was growing up, a lot of what was posited as "confidence" and "self love" to girls was literally pretending to be a narcissist until you managed to actually become one and then that was considered "empowerment." If you want to be a total asshole then yes, it works, but what a cost! I'm not sure what the solution to achieving real self-love is but I bet it's like real love in that it has to be based on reality and good communication (with yourself). Plus a whole lot of therapy. Honestly the best solution I have found is detailed out in Ballerina Body by Misty Copeland, which is a fantastic book. Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach is another excellent resource, not just for women but for every human. And to hear from a really inspirational woman, read Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams. A ballerina, an expert writer, and a soldier - I'll listen to these any day over any Feminist, any day of the week.
• There actually is precious little good representation of self-made women in fictitious media, which is a problem. Most of it involves women using the threat narrative that is Feminism to pretend to be self-reliant but the open secret is that they always seem to rely on men for the important stuff such as earning a living, protecting their very lives, etc. Then you have a lot of women trying to actually use that as an example to be "empowered" (and yeah I have seen this IRL a lot, and I mean literally thousands of times), and then you really have a problem. For good examples of truly powerful women, I suggest taking a close look at those you know and considering who is quite impressive, and looking at female EMTs, nurses, soldiers, and those in workplaces considered "traditional for men" (which is a crock, but that's another story). As for fiction, the only - and I mean only - strong female leads I have seen are in A Cowboy's Redemption by Jeannie Watt and in the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series. In pretty much all others, there is an infuriating trope of the "strong, liberated woman" making such a dumb mistake that even a kindergartener could tell was a trap or otherwise a bad idea, and then needing some kind of rescue from a man to prevent her from getting killed, ruining her finances, becoming homeless, or some other such. (What's really weird about this is that this is usually made by female writers, and the male characters often use some kind of brilliant strategem to protect the lady, so why do these writers never flip the genders?) Why are there so few strong female leads? Because feminism fucked up female empowerment in so many different ways that it somehow convinced women self-delusion (I am strong and powerful, despite having precious little actual skill, knowledge, education/understanding of logical reasoning, and physical strength, aka merit to compete with others professionally or otherwise, but forget that, it's the Patriarchy keeping me down) would give them empowerment. I mention those leads because they do not drink the Kool-Aid of believing that true empowerment comes from external sources.
• The question these days really is of power. Most people are focused on attaining it at any cost, mostly by becoming their own worst enemies, creating situations of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss." In other words, like that one scene in Star Wars with Luke cutting off Vader's hand and gaining it as a result, only instead of the hand essentially just cutting off Vader's head and thus becoming him. The other extreme, that of becoming like Batman and never killing, or some kind of knight with a code of honor that enslaves you to a particular set of rules, or of extreme levels of compassion and mercy to the point of allowing evil to flourish and gain a ton of power because you want to be merciful, is just as bad. The middle ground? Keep an open mind and be adaptable and willing to change. That said I am fairly certain with enough intelligence and wisdom, plus constant self-education, things can change for anyone, because that's a more pure kind of power than simply lording it over your realm without clarity. I have known women like that. They were the kind of people who others obeyed without question, because they had earned loyalty, trust, and respect simply through being that wise and therefore also virtuous. They were the backbones and foundations of their families and communities, loved, respected, feared, cherished, and honestly terrifying. These were women who saw right through chauvinists and other morons and either stayed well away, wreaked havoc, or had them eating out of the palms of their hands in due time, and in the end managed to make just about everyone happy. I have seen women move heaven and earth to make miracles happen and not give a single shit who knew because they were so busy having the time of their lives. I think that everyone should make a sincere effort to learn from women like that. I have known women who have pretended to be like that and then demanded to be obeyed without question and groveled to without even knowing the person they were making demands of, and then demanded accolades and fame for their "hard work." Most of the ones in the latter category were diehard Feminists, and the rest were authority figures or employees utterly devoid of all merit who never should have been hired or given authority in the first place.
• Of all these legendary women that I have known, the ones who are truly living, happy, free, clear-headed, not a single one has ever identified themselves as a Feminist. They honestly seemed to be too busy with the things they enjoyed. In other words, instead of wasting their energy focusing on what other people were doing, they were focusing on themselves, the things that brought them joy, and not in a way that harmed anyone innocent. I feel like I need to clarify that these specific women were not simply being "rewarded by a sexist society for falling into their gender roles" because they got just as much sexism as the rest of us in female bodies do. Do you have any examples for or against this observation in your own life?
• Another major difference between the truly powerful women I have known and Feminists: the former had virtue in every way they could cultivate it, and I am not talking about "virginity" (yeah, as if that has anything to do with virtue). The latter never, ever, EVER did. If my experience differs from your own consider yourself lucky. I believe the disconnect between women and virtue in Feminism came about because Feminists decided they wanted to take the power from men by any means necessary, and therefore they would become like chauvinists but in reverse. Whoops.
• Love, trust, respect, admiration, even fear - these are things neither money nor power in any amount can obtain for real. Attempting to yank these emotions out of humans in order to jerk them around like a puppet on a string is not effective on the strong, and makes the weak hate your guts and justifiably so. This is a problem created by anyone trying to make humans into something that they're not; automatons that exist only to serve and worship their masters or supposed "superiors." So saying things like "you have to respect women because they exist" or "you need to respect the people who gave you life" or some variation on the usual themes in Feminism that go along the lines of "love me, worship me, obey me, I am your Goddess" can work in the short term but in the long run results in revolt. Sound familiar? Meet the Matriarchy, same as what they call the Patriarchy. Great job.
• If you're going to treat a child with the same amount of dignity and rights as a replicant from Blade Runner, which I have seen countless times done by Boomers and Feminists to thousands of children and to myself, you lose all rights to call yourself "motherly" no matter how many children you've had. Not to mention the right to call yourself superior, humane, or virtuous.
• Some major gains of Feminism in the beginning, such as the right to vote and getting rid of sexual harassment in the workplace, were great. But these were made in the name of equality and basic human rights, not unearned privilege and horrific entitlement. Or hypocrisy, or evil. You know what Feminists could have done instead of turning the movement into a drumhead trial charade of justice? Pursued better medical treatment for women, improved understanding of medical differences between genders, figured out a parenting revolution to help raise little humans in a more reasonable and wiser manner, became experts in their chosen fields of study, and created paradigm shifts all over the place with new and original ideas. They could have bonded themselves to the truth instead of lies, and exposed more and more truths in society, strengthening us all. As a matter of fact they could have stopped the Boomers from destroying the planet and saved the environment. They did not. They fucked it all up because they decided to blame men for everything, pretend they were royalty able to change everything just by existing and having opinions sans the hard work change requires, and go on power trips instead of fucking solving the problems. And why am I upset? Because it's my generation and the ones after mine who have to clean up the mess. I will point something out here: it does seem that women are better strategists and multitaskers than men, and more suited to complex problem solving in social areas such as politics. They had a golden opportunity and they blew it. Every last woman on the planet these days who is not a Feminist still has that golden opportunity, damn straight, women by definition are quite powerful. I am saying that from experience. But if there is ever another mostly-female movement for trying to solve major issues, it will have to avoid the mistakes of the past or we risk going down the same road again as a society.
• One good example of the failure of Feminism in my own life is when I was having a chat with a young disillusioned male friend of mine. He said, "All women are dumb as fuck." And I couldn't answer him. Why? Because for decades Feminists have been declaring, "Women are superior mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and in every way because I said so." Without a shred of any actual scientific evidence. Or worse, by declaring that scientific evidence was created by the patriarchy as a way of covering up the truth because feminine intuition and psychic visions are more reliable, which seriously says something about their understanding of truth and science but I digress. Anyway, I don't actually know for certain if women are stronger or weaker in any way whatsoever because there is just no data. These Feminists were so scared of what the truth could do to the movement that they never bothered to find it! Yeah, I have my own personal experiences, which nine times out of ten indicated that women were actually more intelligent than men in the same situation but more scared to act on it or show it, but that's hardly going to stand up in a scientific paper and it can't qualify as "truth," just an educated guess. Are women dumb as fuck? Am I dumb as fuck because I was born a woman? I don't know, and instead of trying to censor this guy and power trip over him, I want to take the scientific approach. I would like to find out, learn the details, learn the tech specs of the body and mind I was born with. Declaring that what feels good to believe in is the truth is hardly empowering. In fact, I believe Caligula did the same thing in that TV series I, Claudius when he was declaring that his sister and himself were Gods, which apparently was based on a true story.
• The logical corollary of the above premise is that a man who doesn't respect women is disempowering himself because the notion that a woman is inferior (or superior) has never been proven by science, so this is pseudoscience and conjecture. And that is never empowering. You can't live your life on a foundation of guesses you take at face value without losing quality of life. So the end result is that if and when we do find out if any gender is superior to the other in any way based on real science and not pseudoscience, one or the other batch of sexists is going to howl in fury. Like I fucking care.
• Some good examples of Feminism done right? Ruth Bader Ginsburg's work. Honestly, if the whole movement had just done the kind of thing she did, I wouldn't have a problem with it. That said I do disagree with her pro-choice-all-the-time beliefs, because I believe it oversimplifies the issue. Another would be Emma Watson. I disagree with Emma Watson when she says that if you are for equal rights for women you are therefore a feminist. But there's no toxicity in what she says and that makes her, currently speaking, the only Feminist I know like that.
• 7/30/22 because it has to be said: For some reason the supposed defining fight of Feminism versus "religion" is pro-choice versus pro-life. The latter is so loaded with obvious hypocrisy I'm not going to dignify it with a refutation. But the former's insistence that carte blanche pro-choice philosophy is the DEFINING fight of emancipating women is a crock of bullshit. So what are the defining fights of our era for women's rights? I know exactly what they are, and I also know how much of a blind eye so-called Feminists turned to fighting these necessary battles. Take a look:
• The fight for women's health to be taken seriously, particularly in the realm of reproduction (at exactly what age does a fetus gain sentience, and exactly what sort of medical situations are involved in a woman's health, and how do we mitigate acute and chronic pain in females because it's different than it is in men, and how do we get doctors to take females seriously instead of chalking it up to malingering, and so on; trust me when I say it's much more of an issue than it seems) and how ailments present differently in the female body, because if the medical establishment had looked far more closely at these, using good science, I do not think we would be having this fucking debate right now
• The fight for a woman's right to vote, which thank heavens, we now have, but not in many countries
• The fight for all of the rights women have in America to be given to all women worldwide, particularly the ones we take for granted such as the right to work outside the home in any job or career field whatsoever, the right to go to college, the right to drive, the right to not be passed over for promotions or jobs due to being female, the right to choose who to marry, the right to divorce, and the right to own one's own property and lands. It's almost as if once these rights were given to women in this country people just gave up on granting them literally everywhere else, and thought it would never have repercussions here
• The fight for the statute of limitations to be ended so women can prosecute those who once abused them to the fullest extent of the law no matter how long ago it happened
• The fight for all justice to truly be justice, and not just to be a system rigged to benefit criminals and hurt victims, which is precisely what it is in the US right now
• The fight for the right of privacy, which has been seriously eroded in recent years
• The fight for easily accessible, mandatory women's education worldwide up til college and beyond, given to all genders, not just women
• The fight for access to easily accessible, cheap, no-questions-asked contraception, such as condoms, birth control pills, and morning-after pills worldwide
• And I'm sure Feminists will say "we've been trying to accomplish these things all along." Oh, have they really.
• There are now a couple of generations who saw the supposed solidarity between Feminist women. This solidarity had them all saying to one another "having children ruins your life, life's not fun anymore, look at how much we can't live anymore, our dreams have evaporated into dust." This gave them the implicit permission to abuse the absolute heck out of not only their own children but all other children, especially those that they had control over (babysitters, teachers, daycare personnel, etc.). The usual excuse was "respect your elders." The usual actions, abuse and neglect. Well, we never fucking forgot it. We? Millenials and the people after us. Could it be that r/raisedbynarcissists and r/raisedbyborderlines would not be so populated if Feminism had not existed? Very probable. And uh, could any of us have pursued legal recourse for this abuse? No. Because Feminism rigged the legal system to make it behave as though women, especially people who had birthed children, were utterly incapable of child abuse. And that's not something a child ever forgets.
• I'd say, speaking as someone who loves sports and working out, that the second thing I hate Feminism for, after all the child abuse it caused, is declaring that women are just as physically strong and powerful as men so if you have a female body all you need to do is train as much as a man and in the same way as a man and you'll be fine, you'll be able to defend yourself from attack and hold your own in any sport. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Holy shit, that is so incorrect. And with regards to self-defense I wonder how many women were persuaded they could defend themselves with such crap training and died as a result.
• The third thing I hate Feminism for is convincing people in female bodies that they could just muscle through the emotional wiring of a female thought process and they'd be fine. No, we are NOT FINE. We do not think in the same way as men. There is no "nothing box" for us to happily escape to (a friend of mine once said that men are "adorable, but kind of dumb" and tbh that seems to be accurate). Everything is connected to everything else in these noggins, and everything is complicated as fuck. And every couple of weeks or whenever Mother Nature feels like fucking with us everything shifts and gets crazy in there thanks to hormones. Has Feminism managed to create a solution? Hell no, it just says females are "superior" and uses that as justification for avoiding tackling the problems of deailng with the irrationality that floods through a female brain at the least practical moments. I mean, it does make us learn, the hard way, how to handle being flooded with emotions and irrational thinking in ourselves and others, but that's a little like saying you're great at dealing with chronic pain because you've learned to stab your foot with a pencil every couple of weeks.
• The fourth thing I hate Feminism for is trying to prop up its arguments with things other than the truth. (See Detecting BS and Science for explanations of how to get as close as possible to the truth). Things like "intuition," "I just feel it's right," "worship and respect women because you've known ones who are gentle and adorable and loving and therefore you should believe they're all like that," and other such emotional arguments are lies. Narcissistic self-delusion trying to force others to drink the Kool-Aid so Feminists can power trip some more. They're just lies. And I resent that.
• The fifth thing I hate Feminism for is how it disempowered women. The hypocrisy is strong. Maybe not in the beginning, but it's gone too far. I have said it disempowers women before on this site but haven't thoroughly explained how. Well, for starters it encourages doublethink and doublespeak and self-delusion and a nest of lies. And I have never known lies or half-truths, or living by them, to empower anyone. It also alienates many potential allies of the woman in question, particularly men if she is misandric as a result of believing in a threat narrative that all men and even LGBTQ+ folks are out to get women, etc. Which is ridiculous because LGBTQ+ folks are too busy trying to not get killed ourselves and glad for any allies. It has told women over and over to seek acceptance and supposed "sisterhood" from other women instead of encouraging them to trust themselves, stand on their own two feet, call the shots for their own lives with original ideas, even think for themselves. It has encouraged a long list of how women are supposed to think, and be, and behave, which in itself is just as dogmatic and pathetic as chauvinist sexism and ties women and trans women in the middle into even more knots of "appropriate social conduct." Bra burning and not wearing high heels or makeup or flattering clothing, yet another dress code, is somehow supposed to be more liberating? It is in general a monolithic groupthink tribalistic entity of a bunch of women all thinking and saying the same things, which is a Communist crock of bullshit and literally the opposite of individual freedom and self-sufficiency. Said tribalistic bunch of women has also been known for, and is in fact infamous for, being abusive and exclusionary to everyone who is not in that group - even other women. There have even been many instances of shaming women for accepting help from men and chivalry, such as allowing men to open doors for them and do grunt work like mow the lawn and so on, despite the fact that allowing guys to do this for you (or not) is a personal choice. It has used half-baked delusional arguments for all of this such as mob chants of "women power" instead of ethical and just reasoning based on logic and scientific evidence aka truth. It has taken too much inspiration from chauvinism and the delusional egotistic narcissism of the Boomers, such as by saying "every woman is a Goddess" as the female version of "be a Man" and other such toxic masculinity chauvinist bullshit; the mirror image but toxic femininity. Female dictators are not worthy of being called "Goddess," sure most humans can possibly be called sacred, even Divine, but that's taking it too far. It has had an unfortunate tendency of being enmeshed with pacifism, telling women to be lovers not fighters and to oppose things like the death penalty and wars while in the same breath supporting abortions in all cases, carte blanche; strong enemies out to kill everyone you love are not worth killing but your own children are; sacrifice your own children for your own happiness? It has also been notorious for brigading and censoring literally anyone who disagrees with the common Feminist party line of the day, whatever it is, even if the critic happens to have a valid point or is telling the truth. Allergy to truth? Not a good sign. One really disempowering thing about Feminism is the encouragement it gives people to identify themselves as part of a group instead of having the freedom to explore who they are as individuals, what they believe and stand for, and how they choose to engage with the free will they've been given. It has encouraged women to spend precious time, effort, and energy on battling a nebulous conspiracist "patriarchy" instead of buckling down to fight the important issues one at a time with discernment and wisdom, thus encouraging a shotgun imprecise approach that has resulted in much suffering for the innocent. More importantly, it has encouraged women to blame their problems on this Patriarchy and obsess over it instead of spending their energy on where it really needed to be spent - their own health, well-being, sanity, what they considered important, their lives, their Selves, and above all where real sexism and injustice was actually showing its ugly face in their lives. It's had women chasing windmills like Don Quixote and claiming they were powerful, using words and protests and general demands of other people, trying to get more and more friends and social support and have them kowtow, instead of actually getting out of the abusive relationship, getting the divorce, earning and getting the high-paying job, getting the degree, winning the sports competition in co-ed sports, changing the system from the inside out, changing themselves from the inside out to achieve personal alchemy. In other words, it's had women LARPing as soldiers in a war for the well-being of women but not actually doing what it took to get the job done and paying it all lip service then demanding that everyone else make up the difference, and expecting a different outcome. Yeah women's rights is important, but did it really have to be pursued in such a dumb way? Feminism has even made it so instead of making it plain that women's rights is a human rights issue, Feminists just made the whole idea into the world's laughingstock despite women's rights being desperately needed worldwide. And the granddaddy of all arguments, which destroys intersectionality too, is that defining yourself based on someone else's perception of you is inherently dehumanizing. I will repeat: Defining yourself based on someone else's perception of you is inherently dehumanizing. What this means is that defining yourself as an oppressed category of person and accumulating more and more labels, thus defining yourself on your external conditions instead of what you yourself have chosen, is inherently dehumanizing and that is the problem with Feminism, Intersectionality, and other groupthink-based ideas. It's like saying, "Oh, my great-grandparents were persecuted in the Holocaust and my other great-grandparents died in it, two of those were female, they suffered sunburn a lot in Israel, they worked too hard working the fields to make the desert bloom, and they were severely mistreated as Jews." Yeah that might be true, but it says nothing about who they were and what they actually did with their lives, and that would be dishonoring my ancestors. In fact it would be doubly dishonoring my ancestors because they ignored all of that and forged ahead to live really good lives (mostly farming stuff). So why would you do that to yourself? And less obviously it has ruined many women's lives by allowing meritless women access to the highest positions of personal and professional power, where they didn't do their jobs at all to help the women they were tasked to help and made it so many women fell through the cracks of society. I have a female body, and I am one of these; for many years I avoided female doctors and nurse practitioners because I learned the hard way their so-called treatment usually ended up in an emergency room trip, and a couple of them directly caused severe chronic health issues (thankfully this has gotten a lot better). Most of my other examples, and the examples of all the professional women I have known and cherished, come from coworkers and bosses being terrible at their jobs and if you ask a woman in a field that requires a lot of expertise and merit about their experiences with other women in their field, chances are you will hear similar stories.
• The sixth thing I hate Feminism for is degrading the women that I admire. I absolutely resent being told "You must love this person from history because they were a WOMAN and did so and so," playing up the female attributes and glossing over the details of their actual (incredible and very very big) accomplishments. What?! I love many women from the past because they are my heroes. Who they were mattered. By saying that the extraordinary women of the past were only icons because of their label as "female," and thus part of the Feminist tribe, you are in a very real way partially erasing them from history. They had names. They had identities. They were unique. More importantly, they were irreplaceable. They are owned by no one, and Feminism has no right to claim ownership of any woman unless she specifically said "I am a Feminist."
• The seventh thing I hate Feminism for is that it killed the chick code. The what, you say? Well you know how men have a 'bro code'? I was in probably the last generation (in the United States at least) that saw a remnant of it in my early childhood. Instead of having the female bunch support and uplift one another, it divided everyone into "with us (Feminists) or against us" and all of a sudden suspicion and hatred infiltrated the works. The only thing left? Competition and gaming for the top spot in the social hierarchy. The solidarity of the female gender, and yes, the third-gender and non-gender-conforming, of my childhood and teenagehood, kind of disappeared as the years went on. Anyway, chick code. Here it is
• The eight thing I hate Feminism for is that Feminists throughout the course of my life always, always would not let me be myself. And by that I mean they didn't accept any honesty from me, any kind of stereotypically masculine behavior, logic, or being anything other than nice and conciliatory all the time. Fighting for my rights was not allowed. Standing up for my own personal well-being and safety was not allowed. I had to be nice all the time, "girl power." In other words, they refused to allow me to be EMPOWERED. And this was before I knew I was genderqueer and presented as full female. There was no excuse. They did this to everyone else I knew also who was female. Oddly enough, the only behavior I saw like this from men was more reactionary than anything; they were scared of me and behaved erratically and obviously not out of a logical standpoint of "well, I know through scientific evidence that women are inferior" - nah, with them it was just the same old programming plus a hefty dose of delirium. No, with Feminists that shit was personal. They hated my guts and wanted me and all other women trying to forge a path individually to fail, and made sure I/we knew it. "Girl power" meant, and still means, fuck up the strong ones in order to force unity. Realistically it just meant fuck up the strong ones to weed out the competition from meritless women, use ruthlessness and social manipulation instead of work to gain a foothold in society, and use Feminism as an excuse and a cover.
• The ninth thing I hate Feminism for is how much it has disempowered men in court. I know too damn many men who have been raped or have had their lives ruined by women who just never spoke up because the courts favor women carte blanche. I personally know at least one who has been locked into a dead-end job to perpetually pay for excessive fees for child support, when the lady damn well doesn't need it. And at least one who has been suckered into getting a woman pregnant just because she happened to want a kid and used him for it. Somehow these are overlooked in the Feminist philosophy because "men don't have it as bad as we have it." Maybe. But men also don't speak up as much. That bro code, plus Feminism, works against them. And don't get me started on single dads and the amount of mistreatment they get from both genders.
• The tenth thing I hate Feminism for is the lack of accountability for mothers. It absolutely amazes me that people in the Feminist movement who actually are mothers don't see this, and I didn't see this until I started being a godparent, chatting with younguns about their day-to-day lives, and seriously contemplating raising a family. Oh yes, and realizing that children are worth protecting. Specifically: if a man is misbehaving, there's definitely a link to how his mother treated him. Maybe it has a lot to do with it and maybe a little, I'm sure it depends on the individual situation. But I know too many angry, chauvinistic, irrational and emotionally damaged men with mothers who obviously never loved or wanted them. Usually this comes with giving the boy what he wants in order to shut him up - go away, Mommy's busy, go watch your TV and play with your action figure type thing. (Yes, I really did see this in real life. A lot. Usually it wasn't that dramatic; the moms just essentially ghosted these guys and were not there for their sons, like, at all, but claimed to "love them" - right. If this sounds a lot like your situation and you're reading this, hey dude, you deserved better. Really.) Feminists will then crap on the man alone for that, but where's the accountability for that guy's mom? For all mothers to do better to break the cycle of this shit? Is it really true that a mother has no impact on her child's development? And how is not holding women accountable for misdeeds in any way empowering women? Personally, I actually can't fathom not loving one's child, telling them they are special, cared for, and showing that you hold safe space for them to be their unique selves. But I grew up seeing the opposite, all over the place, and yeah it's no wonder many of the guys I knew were not mentally well, and also chauvinist. Especially since it's not politically correct - thanks, Feminism - to ever criticize a woman even if she is literally evil. Or, heaven forbid, a Mother, the sacred cow of Feminism (bad wording but you get my drift). Well, I hope you never meet the women that I met in my shit childhood. They gave motherhood a bad name. Motherhood. One of the most sacred things in every human's life. How do you accomplish that?! Anyway years ago I read a speech by Amma, the hugging saint that I like, and she mentioned that what the world needs most is mother's love. You know, I think she was right.
• The eleventh thing I hate Feminism for is how much it dishonored the Goddess, the Divine Feminine that manifests through all who are female, be that a little as in the case of a man in touch with his feminine side, or a lot as in the case of the same man fully in touch with his feminine side or a woman fully in touch with her connection to the Divine Mother. I had long suspected that Feminism carried this dark secret, but only recently was this confirmed as I observed the behavior of modern Feminists, particularly some who claimed to be "Witches." You know that old rhyme about love from the Bible? Love is patient, love is kind? Well I'll tell you now that even the most scary manifestations of the Goddess do not want you to suffer. Not Kali-Ma, not Persephone, not Lady Hela, not Lilith. Not even the Crone (a Craft version of what's commonly known as the Holy Spirit, and also a name of what Divine Force you will meet when you die). Feminists, though? Yeah I'll let you ponder that.
• The twelfth thing I hate Feminism for is that it made so many of its adherents evil and do evil things. Decided not to use a condom today? Yeetus deletus, annihilate that fetus. Kid acting up? Be as caustic and emotionally abusive as you can until they're thoroughly broken and pliant. Husband doesn't obey? Divorce, take half his shit, get full custody. People aren't giving you the respect "you deserve"? Force your way to the top, betrayal and backstabbing every step of the way. Don't get what you want right away? Get into Witchcraft just to learn how to hex and curse. Burn it all down, get your own way at any cost. You know what? Feminism is evil. It calls for Exterminatus. I think it needs to be Canceled.
• The thirteenth thing I hate Feminism for is that not only does it disempower women, but it pretends to have solutions. Nope, the so-called medicine is poison. Well, just to prove to the reader that you shouldn't push someone past the point of "FUCKING WHY" Here is a section on Women's Rights because spite is a powerful motivator.
• "Be yourself - no not like that" is never, has never, and will never be a good ethos for any cause.
• Practical methods for women and LGBTQ+ folks to gain power that I was never taught because Feminism said none of it was necessary and I didn't need to be concerned about it so none of the women I knew growing up bothered to truly teach it to me or anyone I knew (girl power meant all you needed was confidence and the popularity to get others to take care of you - wtf): how to be as self-sufficient as possible, how to determine who is a healthy role model and who is not (I will take Kali over Miss Piggy any day, thank you), how to say "no" and defend it effectively, how to ask for and insist on what you know you need, how to stand your ground despite everyone shitting on you and trying to persuade you that you're wrong (when you're just trying to be who you really are), the when and how of hurting someone who is bullying you in a manner that is ethical and appropriate aka how to be mean and in-your-face instead of passive aggressive and ineffective, how to be fierce and wild and proud and honor your ferocity to the point of being feral without harming the innocent or yourself, how to have fun and let loose and be wild without losing your shit entirely, how to stay far away from bullshit factories like -ists of every kind, extensive higher education, specifically learning about mental health and psychology and sociology, obtaining a thorough and well-rounded education on top of that, voting and being very politically active, always keeping a sharp eye out for all innovation and new ideas and inventions and big changes, kaizen in understanding and caring for one's body because ohboy living in a female body is no picnic, kaizen in one's chosen career, kaizen in one's understanding and implementation of virtue and honor, understanding of and work on personal finance, weight training and cardio and whatever else it takes to become as physically capable as a man because yes there IS a gap in ability unless you train a lot, bearing arms, seeking win-win situations with all important interpersonal relationships, learning how to better support and be supported by the people one cares about, work on one's mental health and self-esteem, work on one's self-understanding, learning proper communication skills, finding excellent mentors, learning how to put up and maintain strong boundaries and punish anyone who dares cross the line with appropriate punishment, cultivating hobbies and pastimes one enjoys, getting better at adulting and specifically maintaining all of one's stuff - in a manner that both men and women traditionally would complete with vehicle maintenance and carpentry and handyman work etc. plus knitting and sewing and homekeeping and such, taking time out of one's day to enjoy things, savoring things one enjoys, pursuing excellence (Oprah has a quote about this somewhere), living life to the fullest extent you can, making the best of things with the hand of cards you were dealt, and - cliches aside - learning how to love more, better, and more fiercely, and if you know a mama bear in your life you know that it is important. You will note that none of these involve "smashing the patriarchy." If you really are in a situation where you have to smash somebody's face in, then you smash somebody's face in, not demand someone else do it for you or complain about the FUCKING PATRIARCHY. Goddess willing, I will never hear about the stupid "patriarchy" again...
• No man in their right mind would actually think that chauvinism or sexism, or in fact any gender roles, would be in their best interest. Why? Well, would YOU like to have a more or less constant rescue mission (video game speak here) of trying to keep the damsel in distress safe, farm the fields, make the weapons, go to war alone, go to work alone, so that the women in your life would be able to sit at home and rest up while you work for two? Do you really think that's in the best interest of someone who could instead have the women work right alongside in the fields, the battlefields, the smithy, the factory? Moreover, if you're really thinking of this from a mindset of chivalry, do you really think all that is in the best interest of the women? 1. they have a say and a lot of them don't like the notion of being stuck inside all the time, 2. women actually don't appear to be so much different from men in that they are supposedly devoid of ambition and desires - ha. And for children, who among them is benefited by the men not having any real idea how to raise children or keep a household or do "women's work" if heaven forbid someone becomes a single dad? Also, this kind of "stay in your lane" mindset can and will detonate in any romantic relationship like an atom bomb or like a slow buildup of pressure and is infamous for causing a lot of resentment. The more communication, collaboration, and understanding of what the other party is living through every single day in any relationship, the less likely it is that it will all go to shit.
• We need to be tearing down this social construct called gender roles instead of perpetuating it. On the whole it has caused more harm to the innocent than it has prevented. Little girls need to be taught how to fight and build things and understand math. Little boys need to be taught how to sew and cook and clean and play with dolls to attain better social skills. And little ones need to understand how to respect who they are on the inside, understand that they can define themselves and what and who they want to become, and not just identify themselves as what society sees them as. The whole notion of the latter is toxic to the core. Why are we teaching little ones to become carbon copies of us? Wait - Boomers would think that would be great. Let me rephrase. Why are we teaching little ones that who they are and what they want doesn't matter?
• A lot of TERFs are aware that women are a walking mass of contradiction and complexity which definitely seems to help assist women to be wise and not clueless, able to multitask and overall hold things together when the whole world is falling apart. I think they're also aware that back in the day they weren't understood but they figured out their detractors as well as themselves. They didn't like being on the bottom and they forced their way to the top through any means. Now they're trying to hold on to being the top dogs by using the same methods chauvinists used on them, and now they're the detractors of LGBTQ+ folks and they don't know how to handle it, cause their tiny pea brains might know deep down we might just be a little bit more complicated and woke than they are. Talk about not learning from the past. They can't and won't understand us and deep down they're terrified they might be passe. Such is progress. Besides, no one can have their moment in the sun forever. And sane people don't give a damn about that anyway.
• I am going to make a point of teaching all the kids and teens I interact with who want to learn this stuff the aforementioned things so they don't have to live with the b.s. my generation did.
• You know what? I have the distinct impression that a lot of women are already doing all of the above and have been discontented with the state of feminism but unable to articulate why. I also have the distinct impression that many of these women who are truly "walking the walk" are sick and tired of these posers making all women look bad and worse, having a crab bucket mentality of dragging down all women who aren't feminist too because "silence is complicity" or whatever.
• A major reason why Feminism fucked us all is that men were convinced to give women more power even when it was not warranted, making things too much easier for women, and so on and so forth. What's the problem here? That's not equality! For instance, there are too many men who have unfair custody rights over their children in divorce cases because supposedly the women are by default better with the children (right...). And how exactly is that supposed to empower women if they don't have the opportunity to rise to the challenge but have everything handed down on a silver platter? Even in the US Armed Forces, women do not have the same fitness standards as men do. And if that doesn't explain the problem, I don't know what will.
• In general, Feminism demands that the Patriarchy stand down, that men stop oppressing women and that the big one stop oppressing the small one, the strong stop oppressing the weak. But that is hardly a fighting approach; it's meek and it's crap. You know what? How about instead of whining for mercy from someone that you yourself say is your enemy, you say to them, Okay then. Be a strong enemy, that you may be worthy as an adversary and so that I can gain strength by defeating you. In other words, Feminism (and indeed Intersectionality or any other such victim-mentality shit) has been encouraging cowardice in its adherents. What if we had the opposite? In fact, even in Christianity this "the meek shall inherit the earth" stuff Jesus did was a demonstration of civil disobedience, much like Gandhi and MLK Jr. There is a lot you can do to be strong, and none of it involves stooping to the level of using innocent people as scapegoats or victimizing people "beneath you" or thoughtlessly harming those beneath your notice and rationalizing it away by saying you're a victim yourself. In fact I ask you this: when did courage in an underdog go out of fashion?
• I was not given the luxury of being able to criticize Feminists when I was a child being abused by them. I do so now to speak up for all the children going through the same kind of abuse, so that another generation does not have to go through a society that glorifies this philosophy that condones creation of narcissism, sociopathy, and machiavellianism in women at the cost of children and everyone else unable to lift a finger to defend themselves. Enough. You can promote equal rights for women without calling it Feminism, and that's called human rights. Even the word Feminism is now tainted with cruelty and horror.
• To make this super clear to any and all idiot Feminist brigaders who only read what they wanted to hear in order to get offended by all of this, here's what I believe in: equal - truly equal - rights for women. Equal rights and opportunities for women. Feminism no longer means that.
• No matter how beautiful the forest, if it's twisted and diseased, its end will bring new growth. Feminism sucks. Burn it all down!
• We can carry forward a movement called "women's rights," because words are powerful, and because women's rights are important. I here define "women's rights" as women's rights; seeking equal rights for women. However, as I have now abundantly illustrated, Feminism is no longer about that. And I refuse to engage with Feminism, and I refuse to not cringe when I hear the word "Feminism." 8/20/22 Know what? The Feminist movement at this point has about as much in common with the Women's Rights Movement as the Neo-Nazi movement does with the 1800s Abolitionist movement. It's that f'd.
• 7/31/22 Come to think of it, you know that old stereotype of the Witch, with the green skin, warts, ugly old and fat, evil beyond evil? That's no Witch. That, my friend, is a Feminist. You'd think that appearance would have nothing to do with it but I've seen too many thousands of horrible women (and men) like that to dismiss it as mere coincidence. I think it is an outward manifestation of not taking proper care of yourself and then taking it out on everyone else. You know what? I'm just getting started. Hell hath no fury like a child that's been abused. Don't forget it.
• 7/31/22 If I ever happen to meet you or someone you talk to or any of that, please, for the love of God and all that is holy and good and wholesome, like adorable baby puppies, or whatever. Call it women's rights and not Feminism so I know you are not fucking insane. Please!

More Random Thoughts

• I am now certain that most of the world's evils can be averted by simply doing everything possible to avoid having people spoil their children. Better parenting = world peace? Very likely.
• You don't need to worry about people forgetting about the Holocaust when the last survivors are no longer here. Anyone even remotely affected will remember. And anyone, like me, who lost family in it does not have the luxury of forgetting. Remember that the next time anyone says it's justifiable to kill innocent civilians, write discrimination or human rights violations into law, or commit genocide for any reason. People remember.
• Want to know how you would have acted if the Holocaust had happened during your lifetime? Look at yourself during the 2020 election cycle and what happened to Native American folks and people on the border. Look at what is happening to children and teenagers in this country right now. That is how. And no, I am not exaggerating. If you think I am, look closer. I will spell it out. Speaking as someone with a chronic illness similar to long covid, infecting anyone with what I have or with covid is a war crime, bioterrorism. Children and teenagers are not legally able to get the shot in many cases of their own choosing thanks to parents who care more about being right than about the lives of their progeny. Many younguns now know that their parents think of them as expendable or are too stupid to protect them and their government and society at large don't give a shit. Many have been infected by idiotic 'force 'em back to free daycare aka school without sufficient protective measures' policies, and many by family members or friends, some deliberately. Many children and teens, and even infants, have been hospitalized and some have even died of this illness, which is by the way preventable at this point. The levels of trauma that this generation of younguns is going through right now are significant and serious, and if we don't get them some legal recourses and help soon, I don't know what is going to happen but it's not going to be good. One thing is certain. We must have a war tribunal for the people who deliberately infected these minors. And we must have a massive legal reckoning for the people who thought it was okay to become terrorists and hurt children. Oh, and something similar is also now happening to the vaxxed and unable-to-be-vaxxed-due-to-medical-reasons people with medical emergencies who now cannot access medical care because the hospitals are swamped with unvaxxed Covid patients. nursing thread, relevant, TRIGGER WARNING
• Let me tell you something about me. For the past few years I have been receiving the same message from multiple different people (and I mean hundreds from different backgrounds, maybe thousands, I've lost count), so much so it could be considered synchronicity or a message from the universe and this is the message: "you suck, beg for forgiveness, join my cult (the cults differ) or be more like me, you're a terrible person." But no matter how many times I turn over the issue in my mind, consult with my friends and family, and even inventory my karmic slate, I can't find a single goddamn thing I have done that was so wrong. In fact, if I had actually listened to those people I would have joined contradictory cults every few months. If you are in the same boat, consider that perhaps you are not to blame, and maybe other people are just having a frenzy of intolerance these days.
• The far far left and the far far right have this in common: killing little ones willingly. One side decided that late term abortions are ethically fine under any circumstances. The other side decided that allowing your children to die of preventable diseases is what God wants. I don't see any real difference here, since the latter is essentially just really late stage abortions. And until the law starts treating children and sentient fetuses (and we have to determine exactly what defines "sentience" from a scientific evidence-based point of view here and not wishful thinking) as human beings under the law as opposed to property or inert matter that talks and is a nuisance, this nonsense will continue. With regards to abortion, there are also other ethical and moral issues at play, which is why I believe that making abortion safe and legal but carrying an automatic class E felony for those who do not meet the following criteria and the fathers is the least worst idea so far: 18 or under, medical necessity, incest, rape, lack of access to safe facilities for birth. We also need to stop treating single mothers like criminals and vastly increase the amount of welfare they get in order to ensure they're not punished for actually taking care of their kid. Oh, and one more really obvious thing: maybe if we made birth control free and sex education federally mandated and comprehensive WE WOULDNT HAVE SUCH A HUGE PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE, THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO MY TED TALK
• It would seem that there is no movie that better exemplifies the Millenial experience than Blade Runner. The movie haunted me at first watch, and I was not consciously able to understand why. It turns out that all the traumas I was enduring at the time made it so I physically couldn't handle the truth so I blocked it out as a self-preservation instinct - I was being treated exactly like one of the Replicants. Exactly like one. Watch it for yourself and see how you react. Also, here is an editorial providing some insight into the potential why and how of the movie.
• It would not surprise me if we found out that Gen X is the generation, as in THE generation, 40 to 90% propping up our economy by percentage of population putting in the work, our cultural traditions and our society, all without mentioning it. In fact I'm pretty sure the reason we haven't heard Gen X bitching or saying much of anything is because they're too busy keeping the rest of us afloat.
• That which is invisible must still be respected
• Can someone please make a meme of photoshopped Voldemort over Wide Putin Walking?
• An old religious saying is that "the darkness beheld the light and could not understand it" or something like that but the opposite is also true. Those who are good, kind, and innocent have no idea what they're up against. If they truly understood it, few people would be mentally well. Therefore, best to increase the overall amount of soldiers and policemen in the world who are trained up to the highest standards so they never have to. We also need to take better care of our protectors worldwide, the people that run into danger instead of away from it.
• It appears that the culture of virtue signaling due to being more educated than others is actually toxic. After all, we all started from zero, and it harms instead of helps to shame people for not being as educated. And unfortunately I think I went too far into that myself despite ironically experiencing a lot of that kind of discrimination and harsh judgment as I was learning. I will be amending this website accordingly over the next few years.
• My family and I dislike and discriminate against people based on the content of their character, and not by the color of their skin. I don't know if this would make Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. laugh or cry.
• The thing that has made me the most emotionally fatigued for the past three years has been the constant pressure to be "perfect." You can't be the slightest bit unpleasant or even honest. You can't be different from anyone else. You have to be part of a clique. You have to do this, do that, be this, be that. And no one is willing to budge or make this not be the hill they die on, whatever "this" is. And you know what, I'm actually trying my best to not be a jerk. Every single day I wake up and do my best and go to bed exhausted, and that's never enough. Because I have to be flawless / perfect and "flawless" these days means "exactly like a group of other people who do and say the same exact things." But the expectation of that group and of all the other groups changes literally every day, as do the demands and the constant pressures, precious little of which is even ethical, most of which is just feel-good stuff that makes people feel like they are doing the right thing without thinking about it too much. Therefore I am tired.
• They say the South is nice, but not kind, and the North is not nice, but kind. Consider this a warning, because the whole country is starting to look like the South, with all of its "bless your heart" doublespeak nicey-nice facade charade. Southern culture... is cancel culture. To an extreme. I have never known another culture to so marginalize the unlucky, people of color, and the poor, all while pretending to have such a thing as a heart. Let's not mince words anymore, or try to make things seem more pleasant and look more good than they actually are. Or this could become a problem. I understand that there are some good things about Southern culture but its emphasis on tradition and legacies and the past and NEVER changing are precisely the danger. If you take that out of it, is it even Southern culture anymore? But it has to be taken out, for obvious reasons. If I'm wrong, show me otherwise. Because I've only seen the worst of Southern culture in the last five years, and my opinion of it has only gone down with more experience. That said let's keep the Sweet Potato Queens, they're cool.
• Boomers are infamous for treating their children like pets. Millenials are infamous for treating their pets like children. It may be noted however that most of the Boomers I've known, no matter how insufferable or even crazy, have also treated their pets like children. It seems to be an American tradition to lose your shit on human beings but be kind and caring towards pets, and maybe that's what will save us, who knows.
• Cancel culture is new to you? Oh, that's cute. Ever hear of a little place called Israel? An entire country, and before that an entire religion, of people getting canceled for thousands of years? Ever hear of a little thing called Antisemitism? Well I grew up with it, you fucks. What people these days are calling "cancel culture" is just the whining of the bully who claims to be the victim. And I've got your number. Cause when you're the one doing it, it's justifiable and other people are just canceling you, but if other people are doing it to you, it's bullying. Yeah whatever. Every human on Earth is a hypocrite, it's just a question of how much. I'll tell you this much though, this kind of bullshit milling its way through Israeli culture for decades has resulted in Israelis doing the following: realizing the difference between words and actions. There's a big fucking difference between ruining someone's life with what you do to them, and using mean words. Quickly, the United States is also realizing this. You can say whatever you want but when you break the law, that's another story. Cancel those who break the law and commit acts of terrorism, not those who say mean things. All bark and no bite? Whatever. Just muzzle the dogs that bite. Chain them up too.
• Am I the only one that remembers that in the 90s American exceptionalism was the exception and not the norm? We (most of us) thought other countries were just as cool as the US. I am not fucking kidding. It was nice.
• It is not the natural way of things to want the generations after you to fail. It is the natural way of things to want those after you to take the foundations you so carefully built and soar with them, not to chuck them in a hole six foot deep and clip their wings, then laugh at them.
• It is dangerous to shake people out of delusion by revealing them the truth. They get angry at you, like sleepwalkers lashing out at whoever wakes them up. But living in a society where people veer further and further into delusion is even more dangerous. Just look at China or the dystopian worlds in 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 and North Korea. Nuff said. And call out the evil Pied Pipers when you see them, those groups, organizations, and people that lead people further into delusion and make them more and more allergic to the truth, such as the current Democrat and Republican parties.
• 9/2/22 The only reason we do not exist in a culture where problems are solved in a reasonable amount of time as opposed to Veteran's Administration levels of sheer Vogon bureaucracy (they get back to sick soldiers years after they're already dead) is that society does not have a common reference point to agree on, namely, truth and science. Thusly, it does not create power structures based on merit but instead on archaic bureaucratic junk such as traditions, superstition, custom, overwhelming emotion, and "gut instinct." You wanna know why we can't have nice things? That is why we can't have nice things. Get everyone on board with the notion that truth, science, and merit should be what rules us and we will get everything we need: health care, infrastructure, safety, happiness. Above all, it'll reduce the length of time societal problems exist from centuries down to a couple weeks. "But where's your heart, TortillaTortilla?" In my head. Get used to it. It's been my personal experience that a society ruled by the head instead of the heart is safer and more compassionate, which is counterintuitive but it is my experience. However, it's important for the overall ethos of such a society to be this: "try to do the good, right thing." Emphasis on "try." We're not a smart species.

Notes on Communists and Socialists

• It seems there are many, many, many of these in current days. And you know what, that seems to be a natural consequence of deregulation in Capitalism and the infamous indifference of much of the population to current issues and politics. After all, what is it, like half of our voting-ready population actually votes? Or something like that? But that kind of thing has been going on for decades now. So the lack of care is really the problem here. And people are pissed, rightfully so, but they also aren't educated enough to understand what's going on. Therefore, the interest in Socialism and Communism and to hell with the consequences. The Democrat party is not helping as it is either flirting with or outright supportive of Communism and Socialism these days. And the Republican party is Fascist and certainly not helping either. Oh, fuck the two-party system. And fuck the Electoral College.
• I don't know how to convince people away from Communism or Socialism. But I do know that there are a couple things people don't realize. One is that a lot of people in these movements are there because they care about others and don't want to see people smashed into the dirt. And the other is that the majority of people in these movements are heartless creeps pretending to give a shit about others so that they can get a system that takes care of them with none of or less of the work. Such people usually haven't even thought about it enough to put that kind of thinking into words, so if questioned on the matter they are so heartily in denial that they have plausible deniability - nooo, I'm not like that!!! (etc) If many people identifying with Communism, Socialism, and Intersectionality took a much closer look at those other people in their respective movements and watched them closely for a few years, they'd eventually see a disturbing amount of sociopathy and possibly also crime. I say after growing up in such a place.
• You can easily convince one of the former category of Communists or Socialists, those who legitimately care about others, to become a sociopathic monster by dehumanizing them. By all means, say they're a pinko, say they're an idiot, say they are killing the country and so on before you even get to know them. Make that snap judgment. But you'd be the idiot then.
• The more you blather on about Daddy Trump and metaphorically suck on his nuts, the more attractive you make Communism and Socialism to the rest of the world. And really, who can blame them?

Notes on The South 9/2/22, watch as I cancel Southern "culture"

• The more I learn about this, the more ridiculous it gets. Now, don't get me wrong. I didn't strike the first blow here. I didn't care about Southern culture, in fact even liked it for a time. Thought it had some charming traits. Then I actually started living in Texas, which is a strange mix of Western and Southern and Texas cultures. And then all the memories I had of being called a "yankee" came crashing in, (I am... literally the first member of my immediate family born in the United States) and a lot of other stuff started making sense. Too much sense. And I've fuckin had it. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people in the South are genuinely good people. And quite, quite Southern. This is a not personal attack against the people who are good people... more like a "holy shit there's a lot wrong here, pay attention" message.
• The constant undertone in Southern anything is "the North is inferior." (What brought this rant on? Actually it was the fact that I read cookbooks to de-stress, and in one of these every other recipe had some kind of jab at the North. What North?! New York City? The rest of the country looks pretty much the same as the South right now...) Sometimes it's said outright, and sometimes it's just alluded to. But why is that? I have not discovered a single legitimate reason. Reliance on tradition, respect for elders, respect for the Church, manners, charm and presentation, drug pushing in one way or another by latching on to whatever will make you feel good such as food and parties and luxury and religion and indulgences in excess, etc. all of these are shoved down people's throats in the South. It's all a front. It's all an overreaction to fixing the actual problems, such as inequality, poverty, racism, lack of education, poor infrastructure, and a million other things. If you can't fix your own life, you project your problems outward onto assorted scapegoats. Whole societies do that kind of thing. Cliques do too. It is not healthy.
• Everything Southern that the South is proud about has been done before and done better in other places. Every single thing. Every last one. Hospitality? Muslims in Middle-Eastern countries are better at it. Honor? They're better at that, too. Treating women with respect and honoring their femininity? Treating them like ladies and being kind to them? Done better in Israel. Making people feel comfortable and at home? Visit Japan or Ireland. Honoring the Land? Meet the Green Witches and all Pagans worldwide, and no, that's not a new tradition. Strength of character? My God, have you seen Ukraine lately? Honorable mention to China. The problem is that everything in the South that they're so proud of is fake. It's forced. None of it is real. What little of it is real would still be there if the culture of the South was stripped away, because you find a few good people everywhere. Beneath the sugar-coated veneer, all you find is a caste system, avarice, greed, racism, sexism, and hate. Bless my heart. Realistically, all that is good about the South is what it has in common with the rest of the country, but it's got a Napoleon complex. As if the rest of the country doesn't understand how to work hard, play hard, have fun, and be polite. Well at least we don't treat people like human refuse for being born to the wrong parents. Or not being just like everyone else. How dare you not be rich, how dare you not be White, how dare you not be Christian, how dare you not be straight, how dare you not be able-bodied, how dare you not be perfect. It's so similar to a Totalitarian dictatorship or a Communist borg hivemind that it might as well be called Communism 2: remix. I'll forgive the South if it learns one thing: humility. A lot of people in this area already get this and they're cool. Those that don't are so addicted to their idiotic pride, and it's the hill they want to die on. I mean... if that's what's important to you, I guess.
• Everything is slower, and less professional, in the South. Here, people seem to think that's a good thing. Damn near killed me. Thanks, I guess.
• Whatever kind of problem we got as a country right now related to lack of morality and education, it can and will be worse in the South. Why? Actually, I don't know why. Probably because people here like to cling to their traditions even if it kills them. Makes no sense. "But where's your heart, TortillaTortilla?" Maybe don't try to use my good nature against me, assholes. Reason for rant: I do not want to see younguns grow up in a place where the only tradition that's really being upheld is the one where the society, the culture, and the government all conspire to make an early death more likely. Is it more likely for you to die of preventable causes in the South? Well, take a look at the numbers. You tell me. "Only the strong survive here, which is good," okay then. Keep telling yourself that.
• Supposedly you look out for your neighbors in the South. Not any more or less than in the rest of the country. People who really believe this need to travel more.
• Here's a warning for anybody who's willing to listen. People who are proud of Southern culture have to get started on preserving those parts of it that need to be remembered while systematically ridding it of its evil. Or it will all be canceled. Every last piece. And I'm going to be one of millions, even billions, doing the canceling if the Southerners don't. Realistically speaking this puny paragraph is just a drop in the bucket and it doesn't really matter if I say this or not. It's already started. I've read a lot of stuff. I've spoken to a lot of people. And in the end, I've found not a single thing that warrants the pride people have in the South. They're just addicted to some romantic ideal of a place that does not exist. You want to change my mind? Anyone's? Step up your game. Don't use emotional arguments or thinking. Try a little something called the truth. Cause the only thing I've consistently seen the South excel at is self-deception.
• 3/30/23 Re-read my South rant, after reading some Sweet Potato Queens stuff. I stand by what I said. I'd like to add that if the South and Southerners actually behaved like the Sweet Potato Queens (at least in the books, I've met none of them IRL) that would be something to be proud of.

Notes on mental health

• People in pain are assholes. Before I knew I had Lyme disease and an assortment of other things physically wrong with me, indeed before I even knew I had severe chronic pain, my personality went down the tubes. Frankly, I was way more of an asshole a few years ago before I started to recover. This is something that apparently people with chronic Lyme disease have to an even greater extent than just people with chronic pain as Lyme is infamous for making you go crazy as well as become crippled. It's not very well known in society, though. If you personally know me or think you know me, I apologize for all the bad stuff I did. I wasn't well in the head but that doesn't make it right. I'm sorry.
• Society really needs to stop both romanticizing and stigmatizing mental illness. It is a disease, and that's all it is. You wouldn't romanticize cancer, and you definitely shouldn't stigmatize it, so don't do the same with mental illness. People will give you sympathy and cut you slack if you've got an arm cut off and are bleeding out, or something, but if it's invisible, they don't give a shit. And in order to lower the suicide rate this has to change. Mental illness can happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere. It's not just some punishment of the gods or some rare lightning strike. In times of national disaster like these, it becomes apparent that it's needed as preventive as well as emergency care but it's not like this problem didn't exist before.
• A lot of seriously fucked up stuff happens due to mentally ill people who pretend they're just fine. Same deal with people who have chronic pain. I'm beginning to think that if like 90% of the population actually got mental health care, and adequate physical pain control, the crime rate would go down. Regardless, no amount of mental illness is sufficient to justify assaulting health care workers without having charges filed against you. Similarly, no amount of mental illness makes child abuse, terrorism, or other serious crimes forgivable in the eyes of the law. You can forgive emotionally as much as you want, but letting people off the hook legally speaking means they continue doing this shit. And I'll be honest, I'm not sure how you can look yourself in the eye every day if you don't hold them accountable if you have the opportunity.

8/28/22 A wonderful new definition for the Abortion Debate. You know how no one knows when exactly a fetus gains sentience because of the lack of scientific studies? I like to think of it as Schroedinger's Fetus. YOU ALIVE IN THERE BUDDY? (... I'll see myself out.)

A lot of younger folks are curious as to why on Earth Millenials are so damn angry. Same deal with Gen X and a lot of older people. Well that can be explained. Being Millenial is like this. The Millenial says "Hey, there's a big problem here, you all need to pay attention to this." World says: "Oh look, a whiny millenial. Time to ruin their life! :D :D :D" Millenial: "Okay fuck you." World, at that moment and then 10 years later when it is proven the Millenial was right:

6/10/22 come to think of it, regarding the Millenial nonsense, imagine being told growing up that yours is the generation that's going to save the world and solve all the problems in it, succeed, come out on top, live the American dream and all that. And then being given literally none of the tools required to make that happen. Getting praised all the time for not having done anything (participation trophies etc.) and being taught nothing, then the same generation doing the praising now scolding you for not knowing how to do anything and also beating you into "your place" for not having the tools. And being told to "pull yourself up by your bootstraps." What BOOTSTRAPS?! It took me twenty years to find all the stuff on this website! And I paid the price to find all this shit too, learning most of it the hard way, working myself sick countless times, winding up chronically ill partially due to burnout, and almost dying a lot. I can't even imagine what kind of sick twisted mindset would want to make a younger generation go through that. I really can't.

9/5/22 Despite a lot of memory problems, I still remember being super little in this country. Adults were kind to children then. They were tolerant, and I remember a lot of the teens and adults at the time patiently taught me and other little ones about the value of kindness, forbearance, patience, compassion. Really it was like having a bunch of aunties and uncles. I don't know what made the older generations into a new incarnation of sociopathic, heartless zombies. Far right or far left, both the same, both idolizing the destruction of everyone who isn't exactly like them. Even lead poisoning doesn't explain it. All I know for certain is that apparently my family went through something similar when the Nazis took over, several generations ago. Everyone over a certain age who believes in this is so proud of it somehow. So proud to be callous, cruel, even evil. At some point I think they'll try to persuade themselves and everyone else that they were just hoodwinked. I think we all know that they willingly went along with this. Forgive them? Ask the Germans how well that went with their older generations who once believed in Hitler.

Hindsight Is 2023

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