I just want to say, although I hate how things are going, I like the way you describe them.

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Ah, I see you’ve met my mom. She’s overly concerned with the opinions of others, to my and my siblings’ detriment. Meanwhile, I have a “I don’t know them, why should I care what they think?” attitude, which made my youth with her so very fun /s.

Her brain is clearly still locked into an old society’s ways. The things she thinks would be humiliating are things that nobody would bat an eye at today, like wearing pajamas outside. She’s got her “hidden” racism too, of course. She’s made comments about my partners “having dark complexions.” I eventually went off on her, calling out her racist thoughts, and she’s shut up about it since. Or at least, she’s shut up about it when I’m around.

One of the things I saw, was that if a baby doesn’t seek eye contact with a stranger holding it, it should be a sign that the mother doesn’t give the baby enough attention!

That’s so messed up. Newborns are born with poor vision. “At birth, an infant is very sensitive to bright light. You may notice how small their pupils look, limiting how much light enters their eyes. A newborn baby can see something next to them with their peripheral (side) vision, but their central vision is still developing.”

It takes time for their vision to develop. From that same source, “At about 1 month, your baby may focus briefly on you, but may still prefer brightly colored objects up to 3 feet away. Infants are able to see across a room even at birth, but they are mostly interested in objects very close to them.”

As soon as the consequences become apparent interest in project 2025 is going to drop off a cliff.

I want to believe

Ah yes, Hank Scorpio, the murderous, supervillain boss who earns his employees’ respect by treating and paying them incredibly well.

If only all evil businessmen would aspire to be more like him!

The first time I heard of “communists” and “socialists” was back when I was in middle school, when Bush Jr got us into war. All I did was ask why in the world we were invading Iraq, which had nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden. Sincerely trying to understand the world. That’s when the already-brainwashed kids starting flinging “socialist” and “communist” like they meant the same thing as “idiot.”

So, I decided to read about those concepts to see what all the hubbub was about. Surprise surprise, when I later responded to those same kids by asking what they thought the words meant, they couldn’t answer the question.

Now I’m thinking it’s kind of like the Streisand Effect - 'Muricans don’t want you to know about how other countries run. I didn’t know about systems besides capitalism yet, until the spawn of conservatives decided to use ancient fears from the 1950s as an insult in the year 2003. Surprise surprise, now there’s a swath of Millennials (and other generations, of course) just like me who learned that if conservatives hate something, it’s worth looking into.

Wouldn’t it be hilarious if this is what an AI model latched onto for these guys? To the point that when someone requests a picture of the Turning Point guy or JD Vance, there are so many memes that the machines factor them into requested portraits?

Lisa gets it. From “The Italian Bob,” an episode where the family visited Italy:

Ooh nice choice! I’m using a protest wallpaper too. Though mine’s that “accidental Renaissance” shot where someone graffitied “EAT THE RICH” on the Utah capitol building, with three cops standing around while a crowd protests behind them. It’s just too beautiful.

If we sane people ever manage to win the country back, that picture’s totally going into a history textbook.

Time to find some caricaturists to help prepare the next round of protests signs.

UTIs (urinary tract infections) really fuck with people experiencing dementia. Sometimes the way a person acts under a UTI is the first sign of such cognitive decline. They’ll be fine one day, but when infection sets in it’s like they become another person.

However, that’s for people who ordinarily have self-control. For Trump, it’s anyone’s guess.

I wish I could agree, but my schools had two types of teachers: newbies who were desperate to prove themselves, and tenured teachers who gave no fucks. Even the “cool” science teacher couldn’t admit the truth when I came in with three different sources proving he had been spreading a myth to my class. There’s no excuse for teachers who can’t admit they were wrong - they have one job, to educate. Spreading false information is the opposite of what they should be doing, and I cannot forgive that.

Which is why my elementary and middle school teachers hated me. Take a fiercely logical kid who has no qualms about pointing out contradictions, put them up against an authoritarian (who, let’s be honest, probably works with kids because they’re guaranteed to have power over them), and you’re gonna end up with an angry adult and a kid who’s regularly put in detention.

I have zero regrets. Authoritarians can get fucked. The only good thing I can surely say they’d ever done, was that they managed to radicalize me before puberty.

“There will be some comments like, ‘Well, thank God we have abortion services,’ even though what I went through wasn’t an abortion,” she said.

Yes. Yes she is.

You’re absolutely right. How anyone can accept he’s a liar and still believe him is baffling to me, as well.

I’m just glad I picked this username.

The saddest thing is, a lot of those who voted for Trump did think his incoherent ramblings were harmless. How many people went shocked Pikachu face when they learned Trump actually put in tariffs? Or that heard his “dictator for a day” comments and brushed it off?

Somehow, a lot of people 1) heard Trump’s ramblings, 2) assumed he was lying, and 3) they still voted for him, even while believing he was full of shit.

Make sure the parade weaves back and forth through some of the gaps in the Texas/Mexico border wall.

Oh snap, you’re me! I just wrote about having the same routine!

As to “sleep hygiene” stuff, I find that a lot of well-intentioned tools and advice simply don’t work for me. That’s why I value hearing what creative solutions the fellow members of my neurotribe come up with. It’s also validating to find that others ended up organically following the same routines as I do.