Fascists* are running some county election boards in Georgia

Did you miss the part where I said vote for Kamala? Twice?

I’m ideologically opposed to party and institutional politics on a foundational level. The fact that people are forced to compromise on their values, the “lesser of two evils” system, the whole “closest to your values” thing is a horrible way to approach politics. It rings true if you don’t think about it too hard but it’s pretty bullshit. At the end of the day, when you are only permitted a political voice at the ballot box, you are forcing yourself into the labels you’ve been given by a group of parasites that do not share your interests…

And yeah, single.issue voters probably have other issues. That doesn’t mean they fit within their chosen party’s platform. There are plenty of pro-lifers who fit better in the democratic camp on other issues but value abortion above the rest. I’m not saying it makes sense or is worthy of respect. It’s simply a thing that is

You people? Please enlighten me, who am I?

Sorry that I’m maintaining some degree of this esoteric concept known as having principles. If extremely mild criticism is enough to upset you then I’m not really interested in anything you’ve got to say. Take it easy

I understand that but they’re still in the party. AOC and Omar are Social Democrats but they still run under the Democrat ticket, for example. On the right we see a mix of right libertarians, fascists, Christian nationalists, white nationalists, esoteric fascistss, and neo-monarchists (I’m sure I’m missing a few), but they’re all running under the Republican ticket because our two party system is broken and incapable of capturing the sheer depth and diversity of political ideologies within the country. The labels of democrat and republican are largely useless on an interpersonal basis and only vaguely useful on a systemic scale.

I’m an anarchist but my voter registration says democrat because I checked that box when I was 18 and never bothered changing it. You’d be “right” to call me a democrat, but only to a superficial and largely unimportant degree. I’m sure there are republicans in a similar situation as well and people who may be closer to democrats but choose to vote Republican due to specific policy issues. Abortion is one that comes to mind. It may be hard to believe but there truly are people out there who only care about abortion and otherwise have no strong political opinions outside of that. They would be a better fit for Republicans than Democrats. Again, the 2 party system is fucked and splitting hairs over people who don’t nearly fit into one of the boxes (which is 99.9% of people) is a pointless distraction

Broadly I agree with you and have said more or less the same thing. But there are people who label themselves republican and fall in line somewhere closer to democrat. The two parties aren’t as far apart as we’d all like to think

Kamala came in with some lip service to progressives at the beginning and has essentially adopted bidens platform with little in the way of changes. She’s doubled down on fracking, distanced herself from the green new deal, and courted the center right (Democrat or Republican) from the DNC forward. It’s not surprising but it’s disheartening to see so many people get fooled by what has been the typical Democrat playbook since the 90s. Biden was bad optics so they traded him out. Vote for her because she isn’t trump, but don’t pretend that she’ll do anything different than follow the party line like her and everybody before her.

If you want to make some real change go ahead and vote for the Democrat. Then stop paying attention to electoral politics. Organize in your community. Agitate for worker unions in your work places and tenant unions in your neighborhood, start a political theory reading group, organize a food drive, free store, tool library, something. Literally anything other than wasting your precious time and energy on following the clown show in DC. None of them care about you. None of them want to help you. None of them are planning to make your life easier.

Asexual hermit

You’re a kind person and considerate lover. Bit of a drama queen though

Yoshi in Mario kart and sheik in smash. What am I like?

I’m not the person you replied to but I’ve been passively suicidal for about a decade. I read this article. It seemed a bit prescriptive and patronizing to me. I get the impression that the article is targeted towards people who are acutely suicidal. As someone who’s been chronically suicidal, I’ve noticed that there aren’t many resources that are similar to this for people in my situation. These suicide hotlines seem to be targeted at people who are experiencing acute distress over someone who’s been struggling with mental health for extended periods of time. I’m not going to say these resources are worthless, but they’re worthless to me and I would assume at least a few people who have similar problems. I’ve never felt compelled to reach out or search for resources like this. They’ve always felt insincere, similar to corporate PR speak or celebrity “apologies”. Like these hotlines are there so that people who aren’t suicidal can go “well, we gave them a phone number. We don’t need to feel bad that people are suffering cause we did what we could.” I’m sure these hotlines have helped people and they should stick around. I’m just jaded and cynical.

I asked my wife about suicide hotlines too, she has periods of suicidal ideation and has attempted suicide when she was younger. She said it’s a coin flip for her. They either made her feel more distressed and therefore more suicidal, or they made her slightly less suicidal (enough to not act on it). She said in the moments they helped, they served as a reminder to not provide a permanent solution with a temporary problem. She also hates that phrase but couldn’t find a better way to word it haha.

I’m not sure if what we said will help or hurt in your processing, but those are our honest perspectives

Within the broad context of AA and NA, I believe these organizations don’t permit the use of marijuana for members. That said, they’re decentralized support networks that vary from chapter to chapter so what may be ok for one group may not fly in another. I think if someone has made the decision to try a 12 step program, it is in their best interest to attempt the version of sobriety and recovery that is offered by it. It doesn’t work for everyone though and if pot is necessary to ensure the long term avoidance of other harmful substances, by all means. Do your thing.

When I was a kid, I went to NA meetings with my dad sometimes and almost almost all of the members smoked and drank coffee. Social stigma is a big part of what makes addiction life destroying and as time has gone on, pot has come to be viewed more like beer or tobacco instead of meth and heroin. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that weed has become more integrated into people’s lives as they move away from harder substances during recovery.

One last caveat: weed can just as easily hamper someone’s recovery as it can help it. I’ve had friends and family relapse after smoking because they thought it would be ok. All it did was make them crave their substance of choice more. Weed isn’t some miracle cure for recovery from hard substances, it seems like more of a coin flip whether it will help you or harm you in the long run

No that’s a dead loch. A deadlock is the bond of matrimony between two individuals

Its the page number, the author and source were mentioned in the sentence previous to this one

Stuffy, self-important academic tomes require big words to make simple points

Thank you! This was driving me nuts lol

Never!

I did have some success doing essentially what you said. My free writing was certainly a lot more colorful than the draft I produced. I had a hard time editing my free writing to fit the prompt, essentially stripping what little emotion there was out of it in order to make it flow. The ADHD also made it rough to stay on topic haha. I’d get really into what I was writing and then read it back and realize it was completely useless for the purposes of my essay

I don’t think I’ll be able to cram enough reading in to learn how to feel emotions by Sunday night but I’ll try my best

That’s a great idea! I’ve been so fixated on trying to follow the prompt, the thought of using one of my emotions wheels never occured to me lol. Thank you