Imagine if we flipped the tables. If it’s all on women to have and raise kids and nothing more, wouldn’t that mean a man’s job is to get laid/donate sperm, impregnate someone once, and that’s it? If that’s all there is and he’s fulfilled his role, there’s no need to stay alive after that. Like a male bee, exploding after mating. Why bother with society, hobbies, learning and growing? OP’s “job” as a man is nothing more than to literally fuck off and die, mission complete.

Obviously I don’t believe that, just taking his argument to its logical conclusion. I’ve heard people say that women are just for making babies so many times in my life, but I’ve never heard men’s role put in the same terms.

It sounds ridiculous because it is ridiculous. We’re all so much more than our biological equipment. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, I just had to rant for a moment.

That’s such a cute story. It reminds me of when I go to sweep the floor at work and curious kids ask to try using the broom. Hell yeah, little dude! Let’s turn this chore into something fun!

I love the quote, but I think it’s important to credit its creator - James Nicoll

One time in high school, I dissociated so hard that I temporarily couldn’t understand spoken English. Tbf, I did it intentionally just to see if I could (as nerds do when they’re bored in gym class.) It was very interesting. English sounded like a softer German with French pronunciations, which tracks. I thought it sounded pleasant. I still want to know what non-Native English speakers think, but it was fun to listen to English “from the outside” for a few minutes.

If anybody else has had this experience, I’m curious what it was like for you, too.

Reading this as I pack a bowl and contemplate which version of society I want to build a simulation of today (medieval, modern, or futuristic?)

You’re so kind, thank you. 💜

I still would’ve thought it funny, even if I was not supposed to show it. I was a “smart ass” kid and know that not every teacher treats kids with respect from the get-go, so depending on the circumstances I might secretly be happy to see an act of civil disobedience.

But yeah, I do work with a much younger population. I know the kids I work with usually don’t mean to cause harm, they just aren’t emotionally mature enough to react in socially-appropriate ways. It all depends on the circumstance, which is another thing I’ve seen a lot of school officials completely ignore. Sigh.

I guess I was jaded because i got detention for just existing.

Which is how I (and many others) ended up growing up with an abysmal sense of self-worth. I didn’t understand why I was in trouble all the time (yay undiagnosed autism/ADHD) and for years internalized the idea that I must just be “bad” and deserve whatever happens to me. Which was hard, because I always wanted to help people and would give of myself to others when needed. But something must be seriously wrong with me, I figured, since no matter what I did, I always ended up in detention, grounded in my room, or both.

I was able to overcome that eventually, thankfully, but it made me a doormat during my teenage and young adult years as I was effectively taught to never stand up for myself. Cue abusive partners and employers dominating a good chunk of my life.

That’s funny. When I realize that a kid I worked with took something I said literally, I recognize it as my mistake in wording, and laugh about it. I’ll say something like, “Okay, that is technically what I said. Perhaps I should’ve phrased it as such-and-such” and I then tell/show the kid what I meant. No punishments. We are trained to take responsibility when there’s a miscommunication. We are the adults, after all, and if a kid misunderstands us, we’re supposed to clarify ourselves - not expect them to magically know something they weren’t taught.

It’s such a far away world from the environment I was taught in, and I’m so glad to work somewhere that aligns with the science of how kids develop.

I would hope that some people reading this thread come away with a better understanding of why the dream of an American uprising is so difficult to achieve. I know these stories probably come from all around the world, but so far I can easily imagine everything I’ve read here as happening in a normal US school (like the ones I went to.) The authoritarian indoctrination starts young. Those that don’t get in trouble, but witness others getting in trouble for stupid things, learn to keep their heads down and stay quiet, even when something unjust is happening. That behavior carries on into adulthood. Now we have millions of people raised in such school environments, feeling utterly helpless as their neighbors get kidnapped or killed in the streets by government agents.

got 3 days off school at home fishing and playing video games. Best time I had at that school

This reminds me of the external suspension place my town’s schools used for middle and high schoolers. Regular suspension and in-school suspension existed, but a handful of us “trouble-makers” went to this place in a plaza where it was like a single (or double, with a retractable wall) classroom. Thing is, going there rocked. The hours started later than normal school (9am vs 7 or 7:30am), there was a pizza place in the same plaza that we would get lunch from, we watched movies (it’s where I first saw The Breakfast Club, funny enough), and afternoons were spent just chatting with each other (I think it was supposed to be “therapy” but nobody working there was licensed for therapy, so we all just talked.) Instead of gym, we either took walks or went to the community center in the same plaza and used the equipment (much better than school gyms.) Oh, and one of the teachers was missing a finger - IIRC he lost it in a water skiing accident. Dude was cool and laid back - all the teachers were.

So I’d be able to sleep in, get all my schoolwork and homework done during the morning, watch a movie, and screw around talking with other kids who were ostensibly there for being “in trouble.”

As to why I was there? I’d been there a few times and can’t recall each incident, but for the longest stay it was because I was being picked on by numerous classmates at the same time and in anger I told them all to “drop dead.” Apparently, in a zero-tolerance, post-9/11 school environment, that is considered “making a threat.” I got two weeks external suspension for it.

I insisted, “It’s not a threat, it’s a suggestion,” but what are ya gonna do?

That works. My pansexual girlfriend would probably be stoked.

I’d trade you my uterus, I don’t use it. Though I’m not sure what I’d want in return. Maybe a spare kidney, for a rainy day?

I understood what you were conveying, though it doesn’t quite “land” as impactfully in English as it probably does in your native language. But it does work, and by the upvotes it looks like quite a few people understood what you meant.

Also, thank you for teaching me about the CIS area. I had to look that up, but as a geography nerd I’m surprised I haven’t heard that phrase before. I’ve mostly heard people state their specific country, or older folks saying, “I’m from the USSR.”

Oh, no, I wouldn’t ask you to delete anything. I just know that forms of catharsis can look strange to those who don’t experience the same feeling.

Like when someone finds that screaming out to heavy metal songs takes their stress away, while another person hears it and thinks, “How could they listen to something that makes them angry?” The trick is, the music doesn’t “make them angry” at all. Rather, it provides a release to emotional tension that would otherwise still linger around inside a person, leading them to feel calmer in the end.

Posts like this provide a similar role, and that’s all I meant to convey.

The post isn’t positive or helpful. It reinforces negativity, feeds anger and increases overall stress.

To someone who hasn’t experienced relevant trauma, it may look that way. To those of us who have been through it, just knowing you’re not alone can go a long way. The fact that people are talking about the issues from this post goes to show that what we’ve been through isn’t healthy - and that’s a message some people need to hear before they can overcome said-issues.

If you don’t need reminders that your awful experiences are valid, and that it’s okay to break free from the psychological cages you were put in as a child, consider yourself lucky.

Note that it’s all part of a journey. Dwelling on the past long-term can be harmful, but putting in some deep thought to where you are and how you got there can be crucial for healing from childhood trauma. Commiserating with a post like this might seem depressing to you, but for many of us it is simply an early step toward that eventual goal.

I’m loving how many comments are along this line. If this were Reddit, the trolls would be out in full force downvoting valid comments because “ew vegan.” I don’t know if it’s because the mods are stellar on this com, or if it’s evidence of overlap and/or acceptance between trans individuals and veganism, but it’s refreshing to see.

It’s so wild how things have become today. When I got my first “grown-up” job in 2007, I had one interview. The first half was legit interview, while the second half was a tour of the workspace, where I was spoken to as if I was already hired. By the end, I was hired, and I stayed with that job for a few years.

I had just turned 18 and was still in my final year of high school. The application for the job was a packet of physical paperwork (no online applications.) I found it by walking around and looking for “Help wanted” signs in windows.

Goddamn, how things have radically changed. These days, I can’t find anything decent without relying on recruiters on Indeed reaching out to me. I have found jobs through searching myself, but they were shitty. Recruiters reaching out to me years ago started me on a career path I hadn’t originally searched for (but that I enjoy and have stuck with since then), and then found me again last year when I was looking for a better company to work for. It’s nice to be sought out, but I’d like more to be able to see all my options and have a choice in the matter. Oh, and it’d be real nice to not have to rely on a private third-party company to know who’s hiring in the first place.

But the work required to research multiple places on one’s own, put in applications and multiple rounds of interviews… it’s exhausting and prohibitive.

Looking back to how I got that first job, it feels like I squeezed through a rapidly-closing door. Hiring simply doesn’t work that way anymore.

The top left reminds me of Alzheimer’s, so I ruled that one out immediately. Spending enough time in a nursing home, seeing people who are perpetually confused… it’s terrifying. Their emotions take over as their rational mind deteriorates, leaving some people angry or depressed every waking moment (at least. That is, I wouldn’t be surprised if their dreams are horrifying too.) People rarely know what year it is, and start to panic because they realize they haven’t fed their baby in a while (which is technically true, as “their baby” is now 60 and fully capable of feeding themselves. But the Alzheimer’s patient doesn’t know that.) Those are the ones who can still talk. Not everyone is that lucky. Some stare at the wall catatonically for hours, or are so lost they don’t understand that the “toy” they found in their pocket is actually shit from their diaper. Disintegrated minds are a horror I wouldn’t want to wish on anyone.

Whether in the top left scenario or when suffering from Alzheimer’s, you’re an isolated, broken brain that can barely communicate with itself, let alone with others. Other people are around, but they aren’t going to fix you. The difference is, someone with Alzheimer’s eventually gets the release of death.

All of these scenarios suck, but I think the bottom left sounds the most potentially-enjoyable. If the worst thing happening is a “time dilation glitch” and I’m already conscious for eternity in each scenario, then does it really matter? Time would eventually be meaningless anyway. At least my mind would be intact and there’s no explicit pain (physical or emotional) involved.

For being a science meme community, it’s a place people can vent about things that they can’t vent about elsewhere. We can understand psychological phenomena, but still be personally frustrated by it.

Though I do wish this post weren’t targeted toward Boomers. Younger people buy into this type of thing, too.