Aw, why the downvotes? I thought it was funny.

Oh yeah, I guess those can also do that.

Well, something does trickle down, it’s just not money/wealth…

Lemmygrad: claims to be anti-imperialist Also Lemmygrad: supports Russian invasion of Ukraine

Hmmmmm…

No, it’s really not the same thing. You can legislate better schools with a variety of methods, the main point being that you’re regulating government jobs(to oversimplify). You’re more limited to negative legislation for parents, such as punishing child abuse. I guess you could technically legislate certain mandates for parents to be better parents, but like, good luck passing said legislation. And even if you do(and this is the big boi), how the fuck do you enforce that??? And on top of even that, how can you be sure parents will be qualified/able to teach their kids such a wide variety of skills? You can fire teachers for incompetence and publicly investigate school districts for failing to faithfully implement good practice. And it should also be mentioned that shifting these expectations (especially via legislation) onto parents will disproportionately burden the poor who will be less likely to have the time, skills, or knowledge to teach said things.

… that restaurant?

I’m struggling with answering this question. I mean, obviously, I don’t know. I could give an opinion on what I think is most likely to happen, but what does it matter? Like, legitimately, what does it matter? And I do mean it earnestly, what would it matter even if I just so happened to be right about my speculation?

We all certainly hope that 2025 will be better. But I think the important thing to remember is that 2025 being better is possible. In fact, I used to be a homophobic ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christian bigot. In my remorse over the person I used to be, I noticed I felt shame rather than self-righteousness over my condemnation of people just being who they are. In my longing to undo the evil I committed in the past, I realized I have the opportunity to fight for good, even if it means fighting what feels like my own reflection. I got better. I still have a ways to go and even more internalized prejudice I need to demolish, but at least I know getting better is possible, because I did it before goddammit. And if a dickhead like me can be better, can’t we all?

And even if things just turn to absolute shit, I know I can at least make my tiny corner of the world a little bit brighter if I can make myself better. And you know what? I think it’s good enough for me to know that I can start doing something about that right now. Afterall, as Marcus Aurelius would say to himself; It is up to you!

Ooo man, this is a super underrated take. Too often people get caught up in what the law is trying to do, how people could get around it, and what the incentives/disincentives are, while not really taking into consideration how the law would actually operate. Sometimes people get all conspiratorial about it trying to point to ulterior motives, but man, most of the time it’s more that bad-faith actors are taking advantage of what’s already out there rather than actively creating the problems they want to create.

My wife is gonna appreciate the meme, but yeah, she’s gonna roll her eyes about who the song is attributed to… all the more reason to send it.

Civilization III Final Fantasy IX Valheim Kerbal Space Program Stellaris Empire Earth Borderlands 2 Morrowind Halo: Reach Rimworld

The must be mentioned: KOTOR Bioshock(and Infinite) Final Fantasy 4, 14, 5, 6 in that order AOE 2 Red Alert 2 Total War: Rome, Rome 2, Medieval 2, and Shogun Lords of the Realm 2 No Man’s Sky Horizon series Space Empires V Battlefield 1942 Medal of Honor(the first one from the 90’s, not that bullshit reboot from 2010) Smash Bros Melee, 64, Brawl in that order Crysis Warcraft II: The Tides of Darkness Theme Hospital MDK2 Chrono Trigger

It was tough leaving some of those mentioned ones out of the top ten, but the top ten belong where they are for me for how definining they were/are for me.

Oh shit! Independent Fundamental Baptist! I had to deal with living with that shit, too. At the end of the day, if the king james bible was good enough for Peter and Paul, it’s good enough for me. Also, rock music is the devil.

As a preface, I absolutely agree that the parents here are very likely to be wrong in that it seems like they were ideologically opposed to their son’s identity.

HOWEVER. I find it difficult to trust the validity and/or truth in the details given about this particular story as the article and title are both blatantly biased. On top of that, the claims made about the intentions and motivations of others are aggressively ignorant and just insanely unhelpful. You want people to double down on transphobia? Tell them they’re a terrible person and they’re only transphobic because _____. I get it, conservatives, Christians, etc should respect Trans people and their autonomy, but it’s better for literally everyone to find the best way to reach these people in a way they’d actually be receptive to, rather than trashing and dehumanizing them as monsters. If they’re conservatives, it shouldn’t be surprising when they act like it. We should also recognize that they’re people who are capable of learning to be better.

I used to be homophobic. I was a fairly conservative Christian back in the day and the justification came via biblical principles. I didn’t learn to be better by being characterized as “he only hates gay people because he’s secretly gay himself” or “he just wants to control what other people do in the bedroom”, but rather by actually engaging my own rationalizations. I would have rejected the premise that I hated anyone who was homosexual, so any rhetoric that mirrors the dishonesty of this article would have been a non-starter. In fact, it would have seemed to me that there were no legitimate arguments to be made against my position, so I would have felt more justified with the given approach above. Being in a few opposing positions on the topic, I never believed that my concurrent position was morally wrong, even though I would strongly submit today that my position before as a conservative Christian absolutely was immoral and extremely uninformed. The takeaway I’m trying to emphasize is that going on the offensive for any such position is not only ridiculous, but very counterproductive.

While I understand the frustration with what this article appears to portray, the added dishonesty is harmful in that we’re dehumanizing two parents who probably legitimately believe what they are doing is justified and moral. Attacking them would make them double down on their beliefs and who would directly suffer for it? Their son. So where I always found the blatant bias of articles or the always ridiculous non-argument “you just believe _____ because _____” inherently dishonest and icky, I think we should definitely take better stock of how we approach these topics for more than just the intellectual honesty, but also to recognize the second, third, and even fourth order effects our method of approach manifests. Outrage, especially about something moral, feels good, but what good is it when directed the way it is in this article? I could accuse them of being blind and only utilizing outrage as a clickbait tactic, and I have a chance of being correct, but I’m not arrogant enough to assert that I know for a fact what they believe and intend and post that on the internet.

Looking through your post history, you’re either the worst kind of troll, by which I mean you’re an extremely awful person, or you’re way the fuck off base for one or multiple reasons. I personally think you’re some young kid that believes they figured out some new age bullshit or something.

But also, you show lots of signs of psychotic episodes. Magical thinking, special knowledge, disordered thoughts/speech, etc. You doing okay?

Are you trolling, or are you just legitimately that oblivious to the experiences of others?

What about it? It’s not something we’re in control of. It just kinda happens. It can be extremely disruptive to our lives, hence the qualification of it being diagnostic criteria for a disorder. For someone who experiences it as something destructive in their life, it’s pretty fucking insulting to hear some jackass mythicize it as some “superpower”. Especially after demonstrating a lack of knowledge on a subject they seem to feel entitled to have an opinion about anyway.

Bro, this shit is straight up insulting. Just shut the fuck up about things you very clearly don’t understand.

Damn, man. You really gotta call out my disengaged ass, don’t you? I think you make an extremely important and overlooked point here. In any kind of social movement it’s imperative that you gain a following for that movement. On an individual level, you do that with good reasoning and specifically not using unnecessary antagonism. It reminds me of all the leftists who were recently bemoaning all the apathy in the 2016 election for what they perceived as “I like whichever candidate, but their supporters were mean to me”. I mean, they’d be correct that this is a childish reason to disengage completely, but these are the exact same people you need to join in your social movement. Too many times we get so obsessive with the academic structure of a movement that we become blind to the world that would benefit from it. We forget that we need to find a way that others would be receptive to our message in how we present it. Truth at all costs is admirable on the surface, but how admirable can it be when the cost is mass dismissal because we felt entitled to be antagonistic toward those who don’t agree yet? So maybe I should put childish ways behind me and begin engaging with others in charitable and good faith.

I will preface with the honesty that the people at that "institute"lack; I’m not a medical professional. I’m very good with philosophy, though, so I generally have a good bullshit detector.

I took a look at the website. These people are quacks and actively harmful. There was a self-described “doctor” that was accredited by the same scam company of “alternative medicine” back in 2003 that killed a kid with bone cancer by giving him an infection from the injections of ‘treated’ blood. They collect all these bullshit “certifications” to make it seem like they’re legit, many of them might even legitimately believe this bullshit. First red flag for me was seeing them trying to treat ADHD(a neurodevelopmental disorder) primarily through nutrition. Then I’m seeing buzzwords like “treating ADHD naturally”, fake ass degrees from places like some quantum holistic school of alternative medicine or whatever, and loads of meaningless “coaching” certifications like “epidemic answers health”. I won’t mince words; these are predatory shitheads that actively harm people with their made up bullshit. Stick with legitimately licensed professionals and adhd coaches. You should even be careful with adhd coaches and keep in mind the primary premise of them being supplemental to psychiatry and therapy.

Unfortunately, I’m quite familiar with evil predatory grifters that start shit like this. I’ve found in my own experience that many of these programs tend to start as corporate seminar pageantry that move the grift into the medical field. I have all the disrespect in the world for the assholes that start this bullshit since they actively make the world a much worse place and demonstrably KILL people with their intellectually dishonest bullshit.

By all means, don’t take my word for it. Read the about section for these assholes and look up the programs they display as their accreditations. If you have any questions or objections about my assessment of these people, please ask and I will provide my evidence. These are bad people and I’m 100% ready to die on that hill 1,000 times out of 10.

Oh my god, that’s something that gets under my skin so very quickly and it’s sadly so common. It’s such a specifically arrogant kind of strawmanning where you’re telling someone else what they think sometimes even in direct contradiction to what they say. Like “you’re just jealous” or “you just want to ____”. It just reeks of anti-intellectualism and everyone is worse off with every use. We desperately need more people to learn the principles of philosophy, and maybe even more specifically of epistemology.

Wait, if one monitor is “more than enough”, then wouldn’t that imply that ‘enough’ is <1? Is my mans out here running a desktop without a screen?