People seeking ai “help” is really troubling. They are already super vulnerable…it is not an easy task to establish rapport and build relationships of trust especially as providers, who will dig into these harmful issues. It’s hard stuff. The bot will do…whatever the user wants. There is no fiduciary duty to their well-being. There is no humanity nor could there be.

There is also a shortage of practitioners, combined with insurance gatekeeping care if you are in the US. This is yet another barrier to legitimate care that I fear will continue to push people to use bots.

Life was pretty peaceful when I only had a landline…

Probably easier to fantasize about if you don’t live with the fear that often comes with that sort of behavior. Stuff like being followed, even into stores…when they won’t accept no or being ignored so they become hostile…being filmed, upskirted, groped, etc.

All in the light of day. And most of the time it happens so fast.

Media exposure is really difficult to combat. I have behaviors remediated, then a few days of exposure due to parental neglect, and its back to being called slurs and being SA’d by a five year old. Building a case based on these things to help just one person….but there are so many growing up on media that is too mature, without context or collaboration from instructors….they are being filled with awful opinions they just uncritically accept as universally true. I know it going to get worse before it gets better. I know it took me so much work to get my on to explain his every opinion with supporting details, to make him stop parroting. And that was limited exposure from school and other boys.

You are probably correct

Well, to recreate the scene, I would have to drag the toast under the back door to the office…not sure how my boss would feel

I think I’ll skip that experiment :p

I thought it was shopped because it was so damn tiny.

Towards the end my dad had a chosen family. I met a lot of them ant his funeral, and they were all better than the biological family. He was never alone even when I was thousands of miles away, and that comforts me. The real family? Couldn’t be bothered to leave work at a retail shop while he was dying. The friends? Gave him a home, cared for him, carried him in their arms to the truck/hospital. I think…what it comes down to in general is finding good souls we can surround ourselves with and not letting those other people ruin us. If possible.

I don’t feel very lonely. But I don’t spend as much time as I did on Reddit. Weekends and after work a bit feel enough. I would doomscrolling Reddit constantly.

I do hope many of them develop and grow up away from it. Otherwise I guess they’ll have to be lonely.

There are times it would be convenient. Certainly less lonely. I think it would be worth it for the right people. But not everyone wins that lottery.

I think the best thing you can do is really become independent of your family, from reading other posts. And put some distance between yourself and them. I’m sure if you became successful, they would attempt to financially abuse you if they could. For similar reasons that is why my response to this question is a hard no, never going back.

Good news is you can choose who to surround yourself with in life. It does take a lot of the sting out.

$2000 tax credit per child to encourage a parent to stay at home…am crazy or do they really not know how expensive it is to live?

Nothing, absolutely never going to happen. It has been many, many years and they moved on more easily than me…almost like my going NC did them a favor. My dad passed before Covid, and he was the only one I had a relationship with in adulthood, and I miss him. I have no idea what has become of the rest of my family over the years. I am mostly fine. There’s no use mourning awful people for decades. I do it once or twice a year and that’s more of the mourning an idea of what having a family would be.

Poor male spiders in the web with big mama 😢

Eating some bread and drinking a ramune.
So right now. :)

Those are beautiful. Not native where I am. It reminds me of the “banana spiders” where I grew up. There used to be these big, majestic nests of them. I ran face first through one as a kid. Definitely a core memory.

I’ve gotten brave in my old age. I only relocate them if they become extremely inconvenient …like my doorway spider (sorry frank). I ignore house spiders entirely as they transit my house. Good luck, leggy friend.

I have a pretty orb weaver on the porch (or I did last summer). Hope I get another.

When you deny someone an abortion, you’re denying them healthcare.

When a parent denies their underage child, with a brain that is still developing, hard drugs I think that is appropriate parenting. Taking hard drugs probably has limited social or medical benefit, if any.

So when a parent denies their underage child drugs they are essentially protecting them (from themselves) whereas if they deny an abortion they are taking away a future, if you consider the fully formed person autonomous.

Not really comparable if you scratch beyond the surface.