But First, Be Aware That The Protests Aren’t Over. It’s June 29th And There Are Still Events And

When absolutely 0 of Biden’s accomplishments have made any kind of news, and we’ve been fed a steady diet of fear and panic for 3 years, no one gets to be shocked when he loses the next election to Donald 2.0.

Posting anything positive about the president here will get you called a capitalist bootlicker.

What do we expect to happen?

Anger sells better. Anger feels better, it feels righteous.

It’s easier to protest against a president you don’t like then to actually remain in charge and keep pushing ahead, even if small, consistent accomplishments are all you receive.

Serious complaining and recreational complaining are very different activities and they’re barely related to each other.

Serious complaining can mean “this upsets me, I want it to change” or “this upsets me, and I just want to get it off my chest and be heard” or simply “I am frustrated and want to vent until I feel better”.

Recreational complaining is fun social bonding and it doesn’t have to mean anything or result in change. It’s not the same as negativity because the purpose isn’t to make you or anyone else feel worse. It’s enjoyable in the way that snarking at bad movies with your friends is enjoyable. Social grooming without the fleas.

this article is behind a paywall but i'm obsessed with the headline + photo combo

Story time:

In middle school biology, we did an experiment. We were given yams, which we would sprout in cups of water. We then had to make hypotheses about how the yams would grow, based on descriptions of yam plants in our books, and make notes of our observations as they grew.

Here’s what was supposed to happen: we were supposed to see that the actual growth of the plant did not resemble our hypotheses. We were then supposed to figure out that these were, in fact, sweet potatoes.

What actually happened was that every single student in every single class lied in their notes so that their observations perfectly matched their hypotheses. See, everyone assumed the mismatch meant they had done something wrong in the process of growing the plant or that they had misunderstood the dichotomous key or the plant identification terminology. And, thanks to the wonders of a public school education, everyone assumed the wrong results would get us a failing grade. We were trying to pass. We didn’t want to get bitched out by the teacher. Curiosity, learning, science - that had nothing to do with why we were sitting in that classroom. So we all lied.

The teacher was furious. She tried to fail every student, but the administration stepped in and told her she wasn’t allowed to because a 100% fail rate is recognized as a failure of the teacher, not the class. It wasn’t even her fault, really, though her being a notorious hard-ass didn’t help. It was a failure of the entire educational system.

So whenever I see crap like Elizabeth Holmes’s blood test scam or pharmaceutical trials which are unable to be replicated or industry-funded research that reaches wildly unscientific conclusions, I just remember those fucking sweet potatoes. I remember that curiosity dies when people are just trying to give their superiors the “right” answers, so they can get the grade, get the job, get the paycheck. It’s not about truth when it’s about paying rent. There’s no scientific integrity if you can’t control for human desperation.

I’m not exaggerating when I say this post changed my life. Seeing this as a terrified self hating 17 year old was like finding a fresh water lake in the middle of the Sahara.

thinking about how in ancient times, at least people knew that the lives their children would lead would….vaguely resemble their own???

People have always fondly reminisced about The Good Old Days and complained about Kids These Days, of course. But—and I cannot stress this enough—when my mom was born the Internet did not exist.

continually awed by how american states function like separate countries

I held back on getting my gender changed in the state of Georgia because it required filing a court case and appearing before a judge to prove that I had transitioned enough to warrant calling myself male on my documents. there was a strong possibility they could deny me because I hadn't undergone any type of surgery (a requirement under Georgia law that is waived only sometimes), despite passing as male 100% of the time.

this morning I went to the Maryland vehicle administration building and they had a touch screen with buttons that said "male" and "female."

I paused and asked the lady "I can choose male, right?" and she looked at me (again, I'm just some guy with a beard) (and I think she misheard me) and she was like "Oh! Do you want to be female now?" I said no, my Georgia license (directly in front of her) says female, they wouldn't let me change it, can I be male now?

she said to just pick whichever I wanted. I got my updated license in 5 minutes.

NEW PASTA JUST DROPPED

neurotypicals talk a lot about how autistic people aren’t “empathetic” bc we express empathy differently but. but then they turn around and refuse to empathize with experiences they don’t relate to? i don’t get it? 

i get called unempathetic for missing out on social cues, by the same people whose default attitudes include: “the music is hurting your ears? but it’s not that loud?” “you’re having trouble sitting still? but have you considered that what you’re doing looks weird?” “this thing bothers you? have you tried not being bothered by it???”