We are going to need real grassroots political organizing to protect each other and civil disobedience in large numbers to slow the fascists in their persecution and environmental damage. Of course this will be harder than ever but we need to stop waiting for electoral politics to fix things and take action together.

The fact that I am not the only one thinking this is encouraging. The fact that I had to scroll this far to see such a correct comment is very discouraging and worrisome.

Here’s my advice on how to really and actually quit: make the decision to quit, and keep making that decision. Every time you feel yourself thinking “just one more…” remake that decision to quit. This was the only way I was successful. Keep making that decision and keep reminding yourself about your decision. You can do it.

The basis of prison abolition is not the idea that we should replace prision with something else. We start by understanding that it is the structure of our society that creates and perpetuates systems of crime and punishment. The emphasis on punishment does little or nothing to address the safety, health and property rights of the public. So it can be seen that it is a public problem that requires a public solution: the vast resources spent on catching and punishing people would be better spent on prevention by making mental health, substance abuse and addiction treatment affordable and available to everyone.

Rather than punish, a greater effort could be made to help rehabilitate people who have lost control of themselves and their lives, to restore them to living in harmony within their communities. Of course there will always be a small proportion of the population that are unable to healthy lives, unable to resist resorting to theft, violence, and desperate attempts at self-medication. Such persons do not benefit from punishment.

Talking politics in church tho? I mean I also agree with the sentiment but what happened to being citizens of the kingdom that is not of this earth? I understand lots of religious leaders are advocating for the other side, but it seems wrong to me either way.

Is PBS an acceptable news source around here?

Anyway it’s interesting that tougher knife laws have been passed in Germany following the attack. This is misguided in my opinion because when knives are outlawed, only outlaws will have knives. How do people not recognize that the only way to stop a bad guy with a knife is with a good guy with a knife?

Thank God Americans have the right to carry our knives to festivals, playgrounds, kindergarten classes, and wherever Americans go, to keep our nation safe and free.

Mi ne pensas ke numero du estas stranga.

What’s our secret? Low overhead! And we pass the savings on to you, our valued customer!

When I moved north, I realized there are only two seasons here: looking forward to summer, and dreading winter.

Well that’s something I suppose.

How many times over the last 4 years have I been told “Oh, they really got him now!” Do any wealthy politicians face consequences for the shady stuff they do( I include democrats in this category)?

And then I think about George Floyd who tried to buy a pack of smokes with a phony $20, and possibly didn’t even know it was counterfeit, but was killed shortly thereafter.

This is not the America I want

Die, heretic!

Some baseball scholars consider any contact between the bat and a Hindu, Sikh or Buddhist baby to be foul bunt, and therfore an automatic strike. A Scientologist, Church of Latter Day Saints or Jehova’s Witness baby on the other hand is considered a fair ball unless caught in flight with runners on first, first and second, first and third, or bases loaded (with less than two out).

What kind of Christian baby? If it’s Pentecostal I’ll hit it out of the park, but a New Southern Reform Anabaptist baby? No way!

SRA describes the goal of their organization as “to provide an alternative to the mainstream, toxic, right-wing, and non-inclusive gun culture that has dominated the firearms community for decades. We seek to provide a safe, inclusive, and left-leaning platform for talking about gun rights and self defense, free from racist and reactionary prejudices, while providing a platform for the working class to obtain the skills necessary for all aspects of community defense.”[25] The group describes itself as “working class, progressive, anarchist, socialist, communist, eco-warrior, animal liberator, anti-fascist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist, PoC, LGBTQ-plus.”

Wow! There’s a whole bunch of people I’m friends with that I didn’t even know about.

Is no one else going to mention the possibility that this kid was severely bullied and abused? I’m not trying to suggest any justification or excuse for attacking sleeping people with hammers, but it is such abnormal behavior that it seems at least possible to me that this kid was driven to extreme violence out of desperation.

For clarity, in this comparison of yours to WW2, hamas are the fascists?

Even if that were how it worked, which I don’t accept, it wouldn’t be months, it would be a week or two at most of difficult bathroom time.

The question I want answered is: do half of all the yogurt cups in the grocery store lose all of their culture, or do all of the yogurt cups lose half?

I explained it better in my other comment. In the case of Neighbor Lady, I like her and want to maintain a connection with her, even if I don’t have any real intrest in her quilting obsession.

For other people I don’t already know and have a relationship with, it is the practice of developing good affinity with others that is important. The way we treat others is a reflection of the relationship we have with our self. Doesn’t it make sense to be kind and open to my own self? I think it does. It follows for me that I should also be kind and open with others. They are not just objects that move around and do things in my environment. My “self” and other “selves” are all fingers of the same hand, to make a funny metaphor. That’s the other reason.

Yes, I get that, but it seems like for some people, possibly OP included, the socially acceptable thing to do is just an empty ritual, without meaning or purpose. That’s difficult for me to grasp, because it’s not meaningless empty ritual.

And also it’s the either/or aspect of it that I don’t like. When my Neighbor Lady starts talking to me about quilting, I really have no interest in quilting, but Neighbor Lady is important to me, I like her and I want to maintain a relationship with her. I don’t feign intrest in quilting, but because I care about Neighbor Lady i do want to hear what she has to say. So it’s not a binary thing like deep fascination with quilting / just being polite but not actually giving a shit.

I suppose I could have used less words to express that in my first post.

The framing of this question is interesting. “…or are you just being nice?” Seems to assume that being nice is not a legitimate or authentic way of being, maybe unless it is a means of getting something you want.

A psychiatrist once told me “If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that people really do think differently from each other.” I can accept this as true but it really boggles my mind sometimes when I think I have caught a glimpse of someone’s fundamental assumptions that are so different from mine.

I have met a few people who have said things like “I don’t have time for small talk or chitchat, it is meaningless noise to me.” I thought to myself “OK, you’re not getting invited to my bar-b-que then.” Which was probably fine with them. Still, it’s hard for me to imagine having that mindset. Maybe when I was a teen it might have been said of me that I was self-absorbed and didn’t care about anyone else, but I certainly did care, more than I was able to express.

I occasionally encounter people -some way past their teen years- who have no interest in any of the things that I am into, but want to endlessly info-dump to me about My Little Pony or whatever their special interest is. I listen, not because I am particularly interested in My Little Pony, and not because I am “just being nice.” There is another reason, and I don’t think of it as transactional or “playing a social game.”

If there is any point to my rambling it is that I find the either/or thinking of the question reductionist and over simplified. I think this is one of the aspects of autism that makes it a disorder or disability for some people, because the very rigid black and white thinking can create a lot of frustration when reality doesn’t conform to their internal strict rules.