Re: Return of the Rants

[eselle28]

"my dog's biomom"

You need to use adoption language to talk about the dog that gave birth to yours, why? Are you worried that someone is going to mix you, the presumed adoptive mom, up with a Pomeranian?

[caliseivy]

*If the topic I'm going to discuss doesn't belong in here, I have no problem moving it*

(None of this is about DNL Prime or these forums).
I'm quickly getting tired of engaging in a lot of online groups lately. Not that I do much posting in any of them, I'm just getting tired of seeing some of the BS people post over and over. It feels like some places are changing for the worse...Or maybe I'm just gradually wearing out.

Places that use to be fairly lighthearted or only revolved around a few subjects, like a particular fandom and everyone's love of it, are now becoming places where people post unrelated gripes, or make nasty comments about a person's like or dislike of some aspect of the fandom instead of just disagreeing, and it seems like every day there's at least one post where someone's going on a rant about something in the fandom that has zero impact on their engagement in the fandom, and multiple people who will use any post as an opportunity to rant about the evils of social justice and how it's all to blame for [aspect of fandom] being bad or changing. I'm ready to leave those groups.

Seems like I'm running out of places to go where I feel like I'm around people who might possibly share my interests and don't say things that make me feel alienated (a few months ago there was an issue with someone posting racist jokes where too many people appeared to agree with them that it was just a joke and anyone offended is just too sensitive); I can't tell how much of it is me needing to ignore and get over it, and how much of it is genuinely a problem. I'm kind of afraid to join any more groups because I suspect I'll run into more of the same, and I'm too afraid to go out and interact in online games anymore.

[Wondering]

Someone(s) in my neighborhood is going around pulling up the Vote Yes on a local issue election signs on the corner and tossing them on the ground. I've put one up again twice this week, and another one once.

Get a flippin' Vote No sign and put it up to the Vote Yes sign, asshole(s). This is precisely what free-speech and democracy is. And tampering with election signs is illegal because of that.

[eselle28]

Someone(s) in my neighborhood is going around pulling up the Vote Yes on a local issue election signs on the corner and tossing them on the ground. I've put one up again twice this week, and another one once.

Get a flippin' Vote No sign and put it up to the Vote Yes sign, asshole(s). This is precisely what free-speech and democracy is. And tampering with election signs is illegal because of that.

Sigh. Yeah. My parents are rare Democrats in our town and put up signs sometimes for candidates they believe in (by no means all of the slate) in their yard. Every two or three years, someone knocks them down in the middle of the night. It happened when I was a kid and I kind of thought "Did they notice the swingset with the pony on it, and the treehouse, and think that maybe other people live here?" and it still happens now that my parents' home has some kind of distinct signs that it's occupied by older people. We always like to laugh when ALL the signs are tipped over, including the ones for the (non-partisan, almost universally popular) mayor or a certain (non-partisan, but known to be a Republican) school board member or that are opposing a measure that almost everyone thinks is a terrible idea.

If you really care about the issue, post your own sign on the pole, or put one in your window or your yard or on your car. If you want to think people who publicly support the opposing candidate are jerks, go ahead and do that too. Too bad your neighbors can't abide by that sense of fair play.

[Wondering]

I contacted the campaign, and they thanked me for letting them know and said someone keeps getting their front yard Vote Yes sign stolen, not just knocked down. WTF, people.

Election signs are pretty much sacred to me. I don't care who or what they're for. They're free-speech, part of a participatory democracy and what we're supposed to be all about. I've never encountered this before and I'm shocked, dismayed, and angry. I'm appalled that's happened(ing) to your parents, eselle.

[Enail]

Yeah, my parents are quite a lot lefter than most of their neighbourhood, and us and the other lefty house on the street regularly got our signs knocked down or stolen.  I think they've improved in recent years, but every election that I lived at my parents' for, it happened.

[Izmuth]

You know how people are shitty when drunk and then you suddenly start to notice that those shitty traits are also there (although subdued) when they're sober?

Yeah, that's one less acquaintance I'll keep in contact with.

[eselle28]

with

I contacted the campaign, and they thanked me for letting them know and said someone keeps getting their front yard Vote Yes sign stolen, not just knocked down. WTF, people.

Election signs are pretty much sacred to me. I don't care who or what they're for. They're free-speech, part of a participatory democracy and what we're supposed to be all about. I've never encountered this before and I'm shocked, dismayed, and angry. I'm appalled that's happened(ing) to your parents, eselle.

This is a little awkward to express, but I'd like to thank you for expressing your anger. I feel bad that you have to feel that way at all, but I think your response to it is the right one. This is something that's sort of been background radiation for a lot of my life (both because of the things I mentioned above and because one of my parents has run for office), but you're right that this is shocking and dismaying and shouldn't be something that's accepted as being part of the price to pay for participating in civic dialogue. I'm going to try to channel some of this next time I see people interfering with election-related speech.

I hope that your local election workers are able to do what it takes to make sure people are able to express their thoughts freely.

[Wondering]

I hope so, too, but I don't know what they can do if they can't catch someone in the act.

I mean, the Vote Yes sign is down again today. :shout: It was up when I came back from church at 11:15 and down at 3:15 when we went out again. And I don't generally carry a mallet around with me in the car to pull over and fix it, so it's still down. And I'm pissed. I'm going to start carrying the mallet around in the car. And pound the sign in super deep and see if that helps.

And make loud, passive-aggressive comments about free speech, the First Amendment, and the legality of election signs while I'm pounding it in.

[Robjection]

Dear bee that flew into the office today,

Sincerely yours,
Robjection

[Wondering]

Well, I have indeed started carrying a mallet around in the car. And I pulled over today on the way to the grocery store with the baby to pound the sign in. It was still up when I came back. My husband's out running errands now. We'll see what his report is about the sign when he gets home.

[BasedBuzzed]

Town gov cancelled two nearby dance festivals, one for which I was promoting. Luckily the credits earned with it are exchangable for tickets to other stuff, but seriously, screw the administrative stonewalling.

[eselle28]

For fuck's sake, 2016, what do you have against good music?

[Werel]

I wish it didn't still sting when somebody was mean to me or my partner because we're white.

[WJMorris3]

For fuck's sake, 2016, what do you have against good music?

I'm convinced George R. R. Martin is writing the script. *offers a raspberry beret - the kind you'd find in a second-hand store*

[Wondering]

Don't buy your dream house. It will jinx you. Your family bread-winner will get laid off and/or have their job moved to a different state if you do.

And you will have to sell your dream house. A year after moving in. And it will break your heart.

[eselle28]

Don't buy your dream house. It will jinx you. Your family bread-winner will get laid off and/or have their job moved to a different state if you do.

And you will have to sell your dream house. A year after moving in. And it will break your heart.

Oh, I am so sorry. That sounds awful.

[Werel]

Wondering, that's awful. I'm really sorry.

[Enail]

Oh, Wondering, what a shame!

[Guest]

>mfw my boss changes the schedule without telling us and i arrive 30 mins late on what was my day off

[Wondering]

Thanks, guys. I'm really broken up about it. The house is just everything I've ever wanted, plus it has a view! And we bought it from the original owners who had it custom built in the '50s and sold it to us because they wanted someone else to live in it a long time and love it. So now I feel super guilty about that, too.

And it's not just the house. We love the location. It's in a really nice town, and it's close to everything. And then I feel silly because one shouldn't be this attached to a house, right?

Sigh.

[Werel]

You can totally be that attached to a house. I'm still a little heartbroken over moving out of my dream house garage-unit shanty a couple months ago after only a year in it. The places we live can really get under our skin. Hugs.

[Werel]

Friend, I am completely sick of your shit right now and I don't want to spend my money on your birthday outing. This week's combo of repeatedly ignoring my clearly-stated conversational boundaries, calling me a fucking bitch for enforcing those boundaries, and being all kinds of defensive and pretentious mean I would rather just not see or talk to you at all anytime soon. But you're pouring on the "I never have birthday parties" so thick, and making so clear that you will Enforce Consequences against those who don't show up, and we have to work together so closely and so regularly in a professional capacity, that it looks like I'd better just go to your goddamn outing to minimize the amount of shit I'll have to swallow later.

But this is why you don't have any friends from before you moved here. You're a selfish, demanding, clueless jerk a lot of the time, and you wear people out.

[BasedBuzzed]

Blegh, political positions I hold taste too much like I have not enough skin in the game to hold them with any sincerity, no way to voice them with both nuance and clarity, and generally purposeless. If the best lack all convinction, then clearly I can congratulate myself.

[reboot]

I have to meet with people in Congress about refugee issues and am coming down with a cold. Not good, but it might give me a chance to sneeze on the ones that I dislike

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