meep_launcher

joined 10 months ago
[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 hours ago

In another post someone said to watch the news maybe once a week. That's all you really need to actually stay informed- after that it's doom scrolling.

Make sure to audit your sources from time to time- how are they fact checking? What systems do they have in place? Are they publishing to inform or to enrage? Are they talking to you with a crystal ball? What questions are they asking, who is asking them, and who benefits from the answer?

When interacting with strangers on the Internet, be like Mr. Rogers. If they aren't being like Mr. Rogers, then be like Mr. Rogers. This isn't for them, this is for you.

I'm struggling in this too, so many are. These tips may or may not work, but I guess fortunately we've all been through this before so we have some idea of what's to come.

I just don't want to become the person I was from 2016-2020, I did not like that version of me.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh yea, he never turned off his mic. Pretty sure I heard his mom come down with tang and Oreos and he cussed her out

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (6 children)

I hoped that 2016 was a fluke, that Americans weren't that dumb and hateful but rather we got caught unprepared by a personality we didn't expect to run for president.

I hoped that 2020 was the true thoughts of Americans, that the insurrection represented the dying grasp of an extreme minority.

I don't think Trump stole the 2024 election. I think it proved that yes, this is America. Whether you think America has changed into this or was always this, it doesn't take away the fact that a majority of Americans will believe anything so long as it makes them hate. Good news doesn't drive votes. Fear and anger drives votes.

I've tried so much to try and be a middle of the road voice of reason and moderation with my friends and family. I didn't want to be a knee jerk conspiracy theorist, I was always patient with people, listened to them, told them the places they were right, and asked them questions hoping they would ask themselves. I'd say "be like Mr. Rogers. And if someone isn't acting like Mr. Rogers, be like Mr. Rogers."

It started to hit when a friend of mine who is very left wing told me that people with college degrees are brainwashed by the deep state. I had just told her I had a degree in political science.

I ordered another drink and changed the subject but it hurt. Now I know she is representative of a majority of Americans. I'm worried civil war is all but inevitable when facts just don't matter as much as anger.

Edit: Lord grant me the strength to be like Mr. Rogers in this comment section.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Oh hey it's that mean voice in my head

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Yea, what stinks is usually I end up in relationships where I don't ever feel that infatuation. I always delude myself that the infatuation will come if only I try harder, but that's a part of why everything implodes.

I feel like the times I've had long lasting relationships, I never felt any immediate excitement, and any time I've felt excited, that's when my heart breaks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

I've chatted with my therapist about it years ago and we don't think I have BPD. I do have bipolar disorder though, however I am 6 years in remission.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Normie here, Lemmy is pretty easy to use imo. I think the transition is happening now kinda like the Internet in the 90s or online dating in the 10's.

Ofc I just got here and I'm using Voyager.

A theory I have is that everyone who hates reddit eventually left leaving the milk bags brains. I was mod of r/mapporncirclejerk and left when I saw my mod queue get exponentially worse. My friend told me it was because the decent people left for Lemmy.

Now I'm mod of [email protected] and it's sooooo much easier.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

I'm gonna need this next time I'm in the bike lane. No SUV is gonna cut me off now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

It was more performance art.

I was treating it more like a Twitter chain since the one liners kinda didn't pace right in a single comment imo

But c'mon I think some of these one liners slap. This is my anger therapy.

Anyone reading this feel free to comment/ message me with your angry jokes and I'll upvote.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Idk if you know these kinds of people, but some of the arguments I heard were "democracy isn't at stake because we don't have one to begin with, Dems and GOP are two heads of the same snake". I honestly am reconsidering one of my friendships because when I mentioned I have a degree in political science, she told me people with degrees are brainwashed by the corporate education system. It really freakin' hurt to hear that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Joking aside, I needed to be better at getting my friends to vote at all. They were abstaining out of protest and I just couldn't get through. It was tough and it's enraging to see them go "I told you so".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

The art I turned my pain into.

That art happens to be a Lemmy thread. My pain is weird.

 

Maybe I'm just exhausted from getting little sleep last night and feeling really sad, but I could use some support.

I've [30m] started dating again since my last break up. For context, I've had a pattern of meeting people, looking for the best in them, get kinda excited although realistically I have reservations, and then within 4 months the whole thing blows up.

I'm off the dating apps because they get me down, and I've only dated friends a few times because I get huge anxiety about potentially losing a friendship if a relationship goes south. I get huge anxiety about relationships in general just because of a long string of heartbreak.

It's happening again- I met someone who came to an event I host, and she was so wonderful. Just a beam of light- her optimism matched mine, she is into many of the things I'm into like biking and climbing, and she even led a jam on piano at my event (I'm a musician and it's a jam based on a principle of musical humanism). At the end of the night, we even got to dancing in the middle of the room. That night I asked her to go swing dancing and if she'd want to see a show I was music directing before. She said yes to both and I felt so excited, but also knowing it was just as friends. I wanted to see if we would be compatible before asking any bigger questions.

The next day I sent a message and a meme, but got no response. My thoughts went to "I'm putting too much pressure on this and she's reacting" or "she's not interested" and it made me pretty blue. The next day I messaged her telling her that the place we were dancing is going to be 20s themed just so she knew what to wear if she wanted, and she texted back like normal- all was good again.

That night she came to my show and we both biked up to the Green Mill (the jazz club in Chicago) and we had a great time. In the middle when we went back for a drink, we kissed and I was so excited. We talked and found we had so much in common- our thoughts on the importance of family, community, and how we can lift eachother up to be better than the sum of our parts. We both are active and extroverted, and felt the same how often times we feel like society wants us to shut up and not be extra. We both love the same kinds of beer. We both had struggled with weed- she put it well that her favorite thing about herself is her social skills, but when she's high it all goes away, just like me. She works for a bike company, I used to work for a bike company. She wants to start a hot dog stand, I want to write a coffee table book about city flags. We even planned to go climbing together for a second date.

I honestly felt like I found my one.

But then she dropped that she had a long distance relationship with a guy in Amsterdam, and that they agreed that it's okay to be open in their relationship. She said she wasn't polyamorous, but it was a way that she felt they could be there for each other while allowing their needs to be met. I told her I'm definitely monogamous and had an open relationship before but it wasn't fun for me. That said she said she was reconsidering her current relationship, but I've also been in similar situations where I've waited for someone to leave their situation to be with them and those also didn't go anywhere.

We biked back that night, and we still had a great time, and she messaged me when she got home. I sent her my number over Instagram, but that was the last message I got. I guess id expect a "hey Meep this is __!" Text so I had her number, but I still haven't heard back. I'm trying not to push it so I'm going to let her be the one to initiate the next conversation.

In the meantime I feel like I'm on an emotional rollercoaster. I mean granted I just met her and I shouldn't be so heavily invested or excited. I should be taking it slow but I don't know how. Hell I barely understand what taking it slow means. I should be perfectly fine being alone in my apartment with my cat. I've done so much work on myself to try and be in a place where I can feel again, but now I feel like I'm going back into another heartbreak.

I know a lot of this is also because I live alone and my family is 2000 miles away. I wrote a song that paints the picture- "oh, I'm floating away/ oh, I'm floating away/ the spacewalk went wrong/ I clipped into the other side/ of the moon/ just to know what distance feels like". I want to feel secure. I want to feel at home. But these relationships I find myself in tend to do the exact opposite. I'm back on the high seas and it's a stormy night.

I just wish I could be like a normal person and not feel. Or at least not feel like this.

 

Charlotte was given to me as a 6 pound 6 year old lady, and I've had a wild ride with her health.

At first things were good, but then she started getting diarrhea, vomiting, losing weight, not eating, and peeing outside the litter box. I took her to the vet where I spent $2000 on tests to no avail, so we went with a prescription food.

Even then, she wouldn't touch the prescription food that was to help her sensitive stomach. She kept meowing for food, but wouldn't touch what I gave her. She went down to 4 lbs, which was really concerning.

I tried so many things, until recently I decided to just put some canned chicken breast under her prescription food- my god it's working. She doesn't pee outside the litter box anymore (unless I forget to scoop it), and her weight is back up.

Honestly I just think she hated the food I gave her so much that she would rather die than eat it. I also noted she likes diversity in her food, so I swap between canned tuna and canned chicken mixed with her normal prescription food. She also is much, much happier.

 

At the end of his life, my grandpa subsisted on 2 pints of strawberry banana yoplait yogurt and a pack of Coors light a day. What dietary hell will you fall into?

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Halp (i.imgur.com)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

Hey I don't know where to post so I just have my darling Charlotte to trojan horse my bs into a community.

I feel like the skills I have are useless. After years unable to hold down a job, I decided to go all in and follow my dream. My problem was that I was $10k in debt after a temp job ended unexpectedly sooner than promised. I've been able to get to a point where I'm set to make $60k on my own, which may not seem like much but as an artist that's huge, but not enough to help me dig out of my debt.

I'm looking at moving back from Chicago to Seattle to get a higher paying job, but none of the skills I have seem to be wanted. I'm a music director at theaters, a multi-instrumentalist, and I'm putting together a non-profit for musicians to connect with values based organizations, but when I look to the world of tech, or at least where the money is, none of that seems to matter. I'm told I have skills, but I just don't think there's a place for me in this world. I just don't think what I bring is valuable enough for someone to say "hey, you should be able to eat". Frankly, today I've had that old voice come back telling me I shouldn't be here anymore. Charlotte is a needy girl and is making sure I don't leave, but man it's hard.

It's like... I want to give up on the dream, but like... Where would I go? Who would I be? I have done this before when I left comedy- I don't have the constitution for that world, but at least music was something I'm good at. I can play 22 instruments. I write songs. Improv. Jazz. I teach. I conduct. But none of that matters now. None of it is wanted. Especially with this new world and AI stealing our work, artists just aren't valued. I grew up in Seattle, the arts capital of the US from 1990-2010, but tech came in and napalmed it. I thought maybe I could join the "evil empire" but sure enough they don't want me.

I just don't feel like I belong here. I'm even thinking of giving Charlotte to a more capable human. Idk. Sorry.

 

How many of you consider texting an ex that was an amicable breakup to see if they'd be up for a hookup.

Update : I created a group text with all of them and now we are planning a 30 person Orgy at the Marriott in San Francisco.

Lol jk I just woke up and made eggs.

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submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

Harry Potter and the Military Industrial Complex

 
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Tickling rule (i.imgur.com)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 
 
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