A Phlaming Phoenix

We clench among you…

Or even the corollary, that the Abrahamic religions grant authority to men, so men who feel as though they command no authority flock to the religions to achieve it.

You’re right, of course, which is dismal, but I guess it will at least be on the record that we knew? That we saw it coming?

This is a literary device called a “bookend narrative.” If you want more stories like that, there’s your search term.

Wheel! Of! Fish!

I have hope that they will not learn from these mistakes and will therefore keep making them. I hope that hope is not misguided.

Yeah, the elections get operated at the state level, but don’t you still need an employed VP to count/register them?

Really, the media finally realized millennials don’t care if we killed Applebee’s or whatever, and they’ve moved on to the next thing to scare boomers with. “They hate us because we buy bags of paper napkins” becomes “They hate us because we can use old style keyboards.” Generations are not a monolith. You can compare them, but it’s stupid to pass judgment in that way.

Greed, corruption, and nepotism are effects of power structures, not socialism. That’s why we have them under our economic system as well as socialist/communist states in the past.

Hah, I love this track, but kind of ironically. It’s fun when it comes up on shuffle.

White Pony is accessible and everyone knows it. Around the Fur has the best snare I’ve ever heard recorded.

With polyamory, Brokeback Mountain is a light hearted comedy about some queer friends who like to escape to the woods sometimes.

You are born into a family that practices that religion. The people closest to you insist the religion is true. Every week they take you to a stage performance where the audience all insists the religion is true and they performers not only insist it’s true but are treated as a great authority on the truth of the religion.

You are put into youth groups and formal education programs where additional authorities instill in you the constant insistence that the religion is true. You join the local Boy Scout troop and they all insist it’s true. You go to a school run by the church. The entire class of students collectively insist the religion is true.

Some religions, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, send church members and their families to canvas neighborhoods, knocking on doors, delivering the “good news,” failing to convince anyone, and coming to the conclusion over time that the rest of the world just doesn’t want to see the truth that you’ve become convinced of because literally everyone in your life constantly reaffirms that the religion is true.

The most successful indoctrination runs deep and is pervasive.

Baron d’Holbach was writing about it in the… 1600s? And it had been going on for a while at that point, too.

I would call it auto-cannibalism. I think it is a form of cannibalism.

“I’m a bitch, I’m a lover, I’m a child, I’m a mother” might play better than just acceptance of the term.

On top of that, an autism diagnosis rarely gets you any support that isn’t Applied Behavioral Analysis therapy. That’s essentially dog training for your autist (designed by the same B. F. Skinner of “Skinner box” fame using the same principals), and people who have been through it have described it as torture. The ADA doesn’t make many accommodations for folks with non-physical disabilities, and cops have no idea how to interact with folks with communication barriers and an inability to control their bodily movements. It’s tough being autistic in public. It’s tough trying to navigate our society as a parent of autistic people. With or without insurance, it’s hard. The problems are not purely financial.

I recommend some books on the subject, particularly Neurotribes by Steve Silberman and Unmasking Autism by Dr. Devon Price.

If you add a section to eviscerate those erroneous commas, I will sign that petition.

I always imagine his little orchestra-conducting hand movements.

It really helps you to hear it in his voice, though.