Companies do 2 things:

1. lie to you

2. underpay you

If you are going to play the game of working in a corporation, the best time to apply to new jobs is the moment you get one. Loyalty died a long time ago, so don’t pretend your manager is on your side.

Or also go freelance and never let 1 person control your income. In capitalism, money is freedom. If someone controls your money, they control your freedom.

I think a huge misstep of the original argument is “career politician bad”. Biden is seen as a one man “dynasty” because he has ~50 years of experience. Obama and Clinton are only seen as dynasties because they had active First Ladies so there’s a “power couple” image.

I think it’s fair to say there are political dynasties- the Kennedy’s, the Bushes- and it makes sense that they will tend to happen naturally. If my dad was president of the United States, at the age of 12 I’d have a much better understanding of the Washington Political Machine than most people.

Usually when we think of “Outsider” candidates, we think of people who have 0 government experience who enter the arena. Notice that Trump isn’t mentioned in the post. Ofc Trump was as embedded in the Washington establishment as much as anyone else when he ran in 2016, having ran for president previously and using the ol’ “wine and dine” method generously to help him get a leg up in business.

I personally don’t think it’s a bad thing to have a ton of experience in getting a lot of people to do one thing together- oddly enough that’s an INCREDIBLY HARD THING TO DO. We need all sorts of people in politics in order to represent the people accurately. The Tim Walz’s and AOC’s in congress brought so much to the table- they know what it’s like to grow up as the everyday American. The Biden’s and the Pelosi’s have been removed from that world for so long it’s understandable they might not have the most accurate picture of modern American life, but they do have the deep understanding for how to get things done. In Biden’s single term, he has outpaced most presidents in getting legislation passed. I remember being optimistic in 2020 hoping Biden would be a modern LBJ, and by gum I think ol’ Joe did it.

“I will have you know I’m a self made man, just like my father and his father before him”

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So I dealt with this a shit ton in my 20s, and have only recently found an effective way to reframe my mindset.

First, my friend introduced me to parts theory. It’s a practice that’s underscored by “nonessentialism” for my philosophy friends here (i.e. there is no single you, you are made up of many, many identities that come together). The exercise I would recommend you do is to name the different parts of you. Hell, to make it fun, pretend they are tarot cards or something. For instance my negative feelings came from a part of me I now call “the sleezy politician” who manipulates people into doing what he wants. I also took note of the origin story of this character- I had very unstable family dynamics that had a lot of backroom conversations, and also I had a traumatic friend group explosion in highschool that taught me I need to control others through charm to survive.

I also have “the musician”, “the teacher”, “the council”, “the romantic”, “the child”… I listed 34 and I could probably keep going. Recognize each one of these people is trying to take control of the wheel of your life, and you can choose who you give it too.

I also just listened to Kevin Hines on the Man Enough Podcast . The man enough podcast is a podcast that deals with men’s issues through a feminist lense- I see it as the antidote to the manosphere. That said, I don’t think you need to be a dude to take something from this. TW: it has a lot to do with suicide, but it is very uplifting when it comes to self love. The exercise I took away from it is to note the thoughts repeating in my head of who I tell myself I am, and then say the opposite. I am responsible. I am kind. I am genuine. I am honest. I am enough.

Finally I had a thought yesterday- I need to love myself before I love others. If I’m not comfortable in my own skin, how can I be comfortable with someone else? My friend who just got married said he knew she was the one when “the relaxed feeling I have when I’m alone at home is the same when I’m with her at home. I feel at home.” That’s when I realized I need to be at home with myself.

But don’t just love yourself- have a crush on yourself. Idk about you, but when I’m absolutely crushing on someone I’m seeing, I become like a bird of paradise. I keep my place clean. I exercise. I eat right. I take them out to dance and see the world. I do everything I can to be my best self for this person. So why not do that for me?

I hope some of this can help friend. You aren’t just wanted here, you are needed here, and for a reason.

The amount of times people have called my trumpet a saxophone, or my trombone a saxophone, or my clarinet a saxophone, or my melodica a saxophone, or my saxophone a saxophone apauls me.

Never call someone a saxophone; not only is it rude, it’s a slur and against the law.

Fully agree.

My take as of late is that any 3rd party candidate who runs in our two party system can’t possibly be serious. They make a huge show, maybe get a message out, but almost always torpedo the party closest to them.

With the Stein’s and RFKs in the news, it’s all sexy flashy publicity without any serious effort to have a 3rd party win.

That said, there is another 3rd party personality that you might not have heard of in a while: Andrew Yang.

I actually believe he is serious about electoral reform, in fact that’s the one issue his Forward Party is about. He and his team have worked quietly to help get ranked choice vote in local elections. He is not running for president as a spoiler candidate. He is not running for senate as an independent. He is putting in the work along with fairvote.org to make the structural changes needed to have viable 3rd party campaigns. We saw what happened in Alaska when ranked choice vote was present- they kept Sarah Palin from holding a Senate seat and elected a Democrat instead.

If we had the NPVIC and ranked choice vote, our democracy would be much more representative, collaborative, and stable.

There is one exception to the “Trump hates negative press” that I’d like to note. When Dr. Fauci was called to meet with Trump after he corrected him on live TV about drinking bleach, he found Trump in his office saying “My god these ratings are amazing, they’re better than cable”. Oddly enough sometimes Trump sees any news is good news so long as he’s the main focus.

The times I’ve seen him really go off is when the news cycle stops paying attention to him.

Also she wasn’t even really interrupting him. If you watch the clip, she was muted and he was easily heard over her. It wasn’t as if she was really steamrolling.

You can tell it got under his skin in 2020, and this was just a pathetic way to “get back” at her for being a woman who asserted herself in a debate.

Straight to jail with you

So I had to look up the Boltzmann constant and… That’s a lot of math.

I think you have a point on the decreasing human temperature. It looks like the decrease is at 0.05°F every decade, which actually is quite a bit. If it was something like 0.005°F, I’d say that that’s a problem for the people of the year 2500 to solve.

That said, the reason it’s been decreasing seems to be due to medical advances and not some change in the Earth’s gravity or climate change. I would be surprised to see humans in the year 2500 having an average body temperature of 72.9°F, or closing in on 0°F in the year 3,984. I imagine there will be fluctuations, but there’s got to be a lower limit to what is physically possible.

I’d still defend the Celsius number, since even though there are changes due to air pressure, it’s changing over space and not time. In the year 2500, water at sea level will still freeze at 0°C.

I think my big thing is I’m less concerned about a logically consistent scale, and more towards a scale that’s geared to the emotional side of temperature.

Thinking outloud moment

If we are going for the emotional side of temperature specifically, we would also need to factor in wind, humidity, sunlight, what season it is, etc. and that’s a lot of variables, and even then that’s how you get the wind-chill factor. But even that is almost completely subjective. I feel like that scale would go from “IT’S GOTTA BE NEGATIVE A MILLION FUCKIN’ DEGREES” to “I FEEL LIKE IM ON THE SURFACE OF THE SUN, so like a bazillion degrees” and then we go to the traffic report.

Either way, it’s not a perfect scale, but I’d still take that over the other two.

I present the temperature scale that I made up- the Human Scale (H°)

I thought about the Fahrenheit vs Celsius debate, and I think both have practical uses, however I think combined they could make a very practical scale.

Fahrenheit: while my American sensibilities agree that 100° is a good marker for what % of my patience is used up to cut a bitch, I think a similar place would be the average human body temperature. For this reason, 100°H = 98.6°F . It’s not a perfect match, but it can still give us the satisfaction of “IT’S 100°!?” while having practical implications for medical uses “your body temperature is 102°, 2° warmer than average”.

Celsius: I think this scale makes a ton of sense for colder temperatures. When the thermometer reads 0°, that’s when you can expect snow. For this reason, 0°H = 0°C.

The conversation rates are:

H = (F-32) × 1.5

H= C × 2.7

More precise is

H = (F-32) × 1.501501501…

H = C × 2.7027027027…

While using the freezing point of water and the average human body temperature seem like inconsistent and arbitrary benchmarks, my goal is less about consistency and more about practicality for everyday use.

Now watch this scale grow as big as Esperanto.

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I stopped eating bacon because it’s $6 at Aldi, but the section over I can get breakfast sausage links for $2.

I guess the problem with that argument is that it doesn’t consider there are a variety of approaches to therapy that don’t all work on some “core function”.

Of course, Hank Green to the rescue once again!

Some therapy is designed to ignore deep trauma and rather focus on the most surface level things. We could go in circles all day about how 9/11 made you terrified of flying, but even if you found some answer, it wouldn’t necessarily help. Instead maybe some exposure therapy or psychedelics or idk some other strategies can be used here and now.

I also think that even conservatives have differing worldviews within their own, so lumping it all together as a bad worldview doesn’t work. Not all conservatives are angry and pissed off at everything and everyone. Not all liberals are the embodiment of enlightenment. When it comes to therapy, I think there is no one size fits all, and a conservative therapist may help a conservative patient in ways that a liberal therapist couldn’t.

The other thing to note is that these Republicans believe it is in their best interest to endorse Harris.

When it comes to how politicians act, I quote my old political science advisor, they say “I’m not dying in that ditch”. The bottom line is re-election. Everything else is secondary.

These Republicans, like any politician, did the calculus for their political survival and decided their chances are better speaking at the DNC- that is not to be ignored.

I consider people who disagree with me human, and deserving of access to healthcare. As a former childhood conservative, I also understand that changing views is a long process and we need guiding hands that can meet us where we are. I didn’t change my views because someone hammered different views into me, I did it through conversations with people I agreed with on some things, and disagreed with on others.

Political affiliations are not monoliths. My conservative dad now supports a $20 minimum wage. My left wing uncle argued blackface theater is acceptable. Again, we are not monoliths but divisive propaganda wants us to believe the otherside is all bad and we are all good- from politics to religion to our favorite sports teams.

My “shithead” conservative aunt would ABSOLUTELY benefit from therapy. She has an eating disorder, trauma from losing her mom at 6 then living with a physically abusive father, and most likely undiagnosed BPD. I know for a fact I will never talk to her again because we’ve cut her off, but I also fully support her access to therapy that, while different than mine, would still be beneficial.

As far as the “shithead” comment; I will say to you what I said to my “shithead” aunt and uncle at the dinner table when asked “don’t you just agree that conservatives, in general, are smarter than liberals?”

“I believe idiocy knows no bounds”

Edit: you said “shithead” not “dipshit”

So I was curious and looked to see what percentage of conservative men seek therapy, and while I didn’t get a number, I came across this interview with a conservative therapist.

At least according to the article, 90% of therapists have liberal values, which in my personal experience makes sense. But the problem is that it makes it difficult for conservatives to find a therapist that they can feel safe expressing their political views, but of course with therapy so frowned upon in conservative circles and they use the church for counsel (not counseling), it’s tough for a conservative therapist to get work. It’s a bit of a catch 22.

The therapist in the interview has so many stomach turning comments that personally I would not touch her with a 10 foot stick, but the point I do sympathize with is that therapy should be accessible to everyone, no matter your religious or political beliefs.

I think this really hits with the “I go to therapy because of people who don’t go to therapy”, but that article gave me a perspective of “oh, the people who don’t go to therapy usually don’t have a therapist they could go to to meet them at their level.”

Recently Pete Buttigieg has been saying that Trump losing would actually be a savior to the Republican party. Currently Republicans who privately abhore him choose to support him because he is their ticket to power. If he is shown to lose 2 elections in a row, he would most likely lose his grip on the GOP, and you would see more adaptability in their positions.

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