Thanks for this comment, I hadn't thought about it this way before. I had realised about how being gay is framed as a thing you do rather than a thing you are, because I have a friend who is an ex-benedictine monk, and they explained about how their vow of chastity meant they were basically "one of the good ones". A large part of why they left was because their rhetoric was "everyone has sinful desires in them and turning away from those is an important challenge", but the unspoken part was that his gayness made his desires extra bad, like there was just some innately bad thing in him.

And of course they would apply this same logic to gender. As you say, it makes more sense when you try to see it from their angle. I think that's important to do if we hope to ever refute them

Theme Hospital is one of the greats of an era. (N.b. there's a mod called CorsixTH which fixes a lot of issues with the original game (mostly age related clunkiness)

I saw some previous news coverage of the Devs saying they'd rather players pirate it than have it spoiled for them, and I went in blind and bought it full price. I don't generally play this kind of game but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Finland is very good for people who hate smalltalk.

I love stories like this because it makes me reflect on random people I've seen who have stuck in my memory for years who probably never noticed me. Makes me wonder if anyone remembers me for something random like this

I've not heard that quote, who said it?

Well that's a horrifying way to think of things, thank you for that (not sarcastic)

“He’s the object of derision. It’s his nightmare. He can’t control the script. He can’t control the cinematography. He can’t control what’s being said about him. And the outcome could go in a direction he really doesn’t want,” said Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer and critic.

I felt a weird sense of almost pity reading this. On the surface, when I think about how deeply uncomfortable this scenario was for Trump, I'm glad, because he's laughable and this is nothing compared to the harms he has wrought on the world. But at a level deeper than that, when I think about how, for a narcissist like Trump, this is probably the greatest torture one could devise, and that's so pathetic that it's just sad.

To people like Trump, everything is about power. Everything is adversarial. The system that Trump exists within, that he's a part of perpetuating, teaches that power is everything and you either oppress others or be one of the subjugated.

When I was a kid, I ended up teaching myself to ignore hunger due to a bundle of things including poverty and eating disorders, so nowadays, I literally don't notice my hunger. I have to set alarms to remember to eat and in the rare instances where I do feel the physical hunger, I rarely notice it as that. I wonder whether people like Trump do the same with their capacity to feel for Human goodness. Forgive the overly poetic phrasing, but it feels like they've sold their soul for the ability to feel safe in the world, because they have opted into the adversarial worldview I described above.

I have a chainmail dress I made for a party once. I don't get much opportunity to wear it, but it's great.

Edit: behold, my silly outfit.

I'm an autistic woman, and I've found great success in leaning into my autistic tendencies. By that, I mean just being blunt and upfront. One of my favourites is that if I've got chemistry with someone I don't expect to see again, before I bid them farewell, I'll give them a note with my number on and say something like "I had a great time hanging out with you tonight, would you like to go on a date with me sometime?" And then I hand them my number and scuttle off like a crab because I can only put on a cool face for so long before I crack under the anxiety.

Regular reminder to anyone that needs it, probably OP:

Binging TV or games is often a coping measure, albeit a not very good one. It can make us feel more panicked and exacerbate self worth issues. I know this because I do it a lot and try to give myself this same advice. Because of this, I also know that what I'm saying here is hard to internalise, especially when the world has you inundated with messages that drag you down.

But you are not the problem. You have problems, and sometimes you fuck up and make things harder for yourself, but you are trying your best and the fact it feels like you're barely scraping by is more a function of the fucked up world than it is of you. Try not to beat yourself up too much for struggling.

I know it's a different kind of demoralising to acknowledge this, and that it's a different disempowering to believe that fucked up things aren't necessarily your fault, but try to be kind to yourself. The world is shit, and I feel shit, but we're trying our best, for ourselves and the world. Communities exist because it's not possible or ideal for us to be struggling alone, and it's harder to build that kind of support when you're being harsh on yourself.

So whoever needs to hear it, I forgive you for procrastinating when you're overwhelmed. It may well be a dumbass move that makes everything harder, but it can also be an imperfect coping measure to help you survive. Surviving is the bare minimum, sure, but it's good, because it means that there's the potential to be more than what your environment currently allows.

There's actually a pretty large ea-nasir meme-posting culture, it's one of my favourite internet things.

Basically it originated from this cuneiform tablet from 1750BC, the oldest known written complaint.

Translation of the complaint: (source: 1967 Book "Letters from Mesopotamia"

Tell Ea-nasir: Nanni sends the following message:

When you came, you said to me as follows : "I will give Gimil-Sin (when he comes) fine quality copper ingots." You left then but you did not do what you promised me. You put ingots which were not good before my messenger (Sit-Sin) and said: "If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!"

What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt? I have sent as messengers gentlemen like ourselves to collect the bag with my money (deposited with you) but you have treated me with contempt by sending them back to me empty-handed several times, and that through enemy territory. Is there anyone among the merchants who trade with Telmun who has treated me in this way? You alone treat my messenger with contempt! On account of that one (trifling) mina of silver which I owe(?) you, you feel free to speak in such a way, while I have given to the palace on your behalf 1,080 pounds of copper, and umi-abum has likewise given 1,080 pounds of copper, apart from what we both have had written on a sealed tablet to be kept in the temple of Samas.

How have you treated me for that copper? You have withheld my money bag from me in enemy territory; it is now up to you to restore (my money) to me in full.

Take cognizance that (from now on) I will not accept here any copper from you that is not of fine quality. I shall (from now on) select and take the ingots individually in my own yard, and I shall exercise against you my right of rejection because you have treated me with contempt.

Most of the humour of the various memes and jokes (some examples found here) seems to stem from the fact that Nanni's salt and rage has endured thousands of years and now we know about it. Ea-Nasir will always be remembered as a shitty copper merchant, and there's just something inherently hilarious about that, to me.