Also, knowing the right people. Of all my positions, only two did I get by being the best unknown applicant. One was a job setting up private care medical services for the VA. The other was a research assistant position in my Master's program^1 . All the rest were by people that knew me, so they recruited me specifically. Of course I had to be a good performer to be recruited, but they still knew me before applying.

1: While it wasn't stated, I think that I got the position in part because they were interested in hiring a gay man for diversity purposes. This was in the 2000s, and the writing sample I submitted with my application was a sociology term paper arguing for LGBTQ rights, so they assumed I was gay. I still had to have an extraordinary application to be considered, but the likely chose me from among the top applicants for my supposed gayness. The thing is that I'm not gay or bi, so I kind of felt bad about it once I started thinking that's why they recruited me 😕

They also don't give a shit if you're truly innocent or guilty. They just want the case to be as easy as possible while also establishing their effectiveness so they can join a wealthy private law firm.

I admire their boundaries and steadfastness

Sometimes, there are valid arguments regarding transgender matters. For example, someone that has medically-induced higher levels of testosterone might have a resulting advantage in aggressive sports. I don't know if that's true or not, but it's at least worth discussing it openly and honestly. What I find odd though is that the people that make transgender matters in sports their main issue say they do it for fairness, especially in support of women. However, these same people tend to have misogynistic views everywhere else in politics, so I'm supposed to accept that this one particular thing is where they finally started caring about equality?? It just seems so inauthentic.

My sister is one of these people. She's suddenly all about equality in sports. What?! When has she ever cared about anything or anyone besides herself and her kids as an extension?? When has she cared about fairness?? It's so uncharacteristic of her to think that way, that I have trouble believing anything she has to say on the matter.

I find it cute when someone speaking Spanish says "buenas noches" as a farewell. It seems like they're saying "hello" while waving bye. It's obvious that they learned Spanish as a second language. But Spanish as a 2nd language is almost universally seen as endearing by Hispanophones, not like some people in the US see people that view English as a 2nd language as insufficient, lesser, or rude.

Edit: Apparently, I am mistaken. Buenas noches can be used as a farewell. Maybe there are differences due to dialect.

It's straight up narcissism. There is nothing unique about Trump's methods. He follows the narcissist playbook perfectly.

Yoooooo, I saw that one! Crazy documentary. I might watch it again. Thanks for reminding me of it.

It slowly started gaining some traction because of:

• Veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq were seen as those that placed themselves in harms way to protect the US from terrorism following 9/11. Until then, veterans were mostly seen as people that weren't smart or disciplined enough to go to college and needed to figure out something to do with their lives. Kind of like how Trump sees veterans.
• Those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq began going to college, organizing, and being more public about their service. Imagine fighting the Taliban, then coming home to go to college and they delay your payments by 3 months. These combat vets were too head strong to tolerate that and would make a big deal about it.
• The overtly injured would be hard to ignore. Imagine a 25 year old missing their legs on a wheelchair at Golden Corral, yet they're the most polite one there.
• The GI Bill was reliable, so schools that were able to attract veterans saw significant increase in their revenue. Schools competed for this by creating policies and programs that were supportive of veterans.
• Family members of the severely injured became strong advocates.
• McCain ran for President in 2008, and his time as a POW was used as evidence of his patriotic values and endurance.
• Veterans publicly socialized in tight-knit groups. Think of the ~5 really loud dudes at the bar that seemed to have an extraordinary bond, peculiar sense of humor, and confidence. People wanted to emulate this.
• Veterans would wear military clothes/items to identify themselves to other vets for camaraderie and a warning to potential threats. American bros started imitating returning combat vets as a prototype of masculinity, specifically attire and ironically beards¹.
• Veterans with considerable training and experience would go to major protests and either do a better job than police or intimidate them. Veterans at protests would be injured by police, making them a good example of hypocrisy that the news would report on. You'd see something like, "Veteran that protected Iraqis right to protest sent to hospital by Oakland police."
• Veterans became the group with the highest suicide rates in the country...by a lot.
• The Arizona VA Medical Center scandal outed that veterans were dying from lack of access to healthcare that was purposefully hidden by administration. Veterans had long been complaining about terrible healthcare services, but were brushed off or made to seem too privileged and ungrateful². When this scandal broke out, it was major validation for the vets and shame for the public and government. Politicians and citizens that wanted to avoid the shame would pretend to be veteran advocates and accuse others of the problem.
• When the government and public tried correcting this for the recent vets, all the Vietnam vets that had been ignored and marginalized started coming out too.
• The baby boomers that spit on Vietnam vets and called them baby killers had to rid themselves of their shame, so many of them became super veteran supporters. As my one military buddy put it, "They were competing for American of the Year."
• The country had a reckoning with how they had treated all veterans until this period. Basically, the country felt it had to make up for it.
• People that want to ride veterans' coat tails without the risk and effort advocate for veterans to get some of the esteem.

\

1: Fun fact! The beard thing was a rebellion to having to be clean shaven every single day for ~4 years straight. It was also a way of hiding that someone was in the military.

2: I've worked in the VA. It is pretty common to hear medical providers say something like, "I wish I didn't have to work for the rest of my life," when referring to veterans asking for help applying for disability.

Edit:

Also, obligatory: Thank you for your service.

Obligatory: discomfort

Tropico 4 had the best soundtrack

Nothing says I love you like stalking ♥️ You guys are def twin flames 🔥🔥

It says something like:

McGra..

Honda

... ......

........ when

oil life is

30%

like what?

what's "poggers" mean?

ok, so to calculate the first gear, we're going to go with (2πr cos AB x tan Φ) / v / 24hrs, where v = the average speed of the water in the river measured at least 30 times at random over a period of a year. The first to second gear is a ratio of 5:2.667. The second to third gear ratio is 4.20:6.9 (niceee). This will be the prototype.

Veteran here sharing my personal experience. It seemed like people generally didn't give a shit about veterans except for maybe a few people that had some sort of relevant personal experience or values related to patriotism or sacrifice. Around 2009, it got politicized. After that, it was a competition to see who cared more about veterans and felt a bit odd and fake, kind of like how people are publicly obsessed with the US Constitution, yet have never read the whole thing. It's a theater in the never-ending war for political or moral validity. Around 2018, it started slowly waning off again, but not to the level it was before.

Awesome post, OP!

Here's a video on the topic that I found useful. It's an interview of a CIA operative explaining how conmen pick, prime, and use their prey. Fun fact: About 10% of the population lives in a world where everyone else is a tool to be manipulated using levers of reward and punishment. Once you see it, you can't go back.

If Trump wasn't such an hated asshole, there would rightly be people calling this abuse of a person that clearly has cognitive decline or intellectual disability. They just straight up made him look like such an idiot on stage and camera, and he's not even aware of it. It's like Michael Scott level cringe but for President of the country.

1. He didn't know what DEI stood for, lol
2. He straight up not only admitted, but used it as an argument in his favor, that he didn't know that the running mate of his opponent in the last presidential election was Black. He also just recently found out that the Vice President of the country for the last 3.5 years is Black. HE'S RUNNING FOR FUCKING PRESIDENT!! 🤣🤣🤣

There is no possible analogy that I can make up to show how ridiculous this is because it's already at max ridiculousness. Any analogy would make it less ridiculous. There's absolutely no other election or application process in the world or history of humanity that would be more ridiculous because it's an ex-President running against the current Vice President for President.

omg, you can't make this shit up.

I also never felt like I belonged anywhere, always thinking I was some dude that just didn't get the training on how to be a human that everyone else received. I used to be surprised that friends would know things about social matters like it was evident, but somehow I was completely 100% unaware of. I had trouble making friends all together, but was able to learn to program on QBasic on my own as a 12 y/o out of boredom. As I hit adolescence, I started to feel like a foreigner in my own family. I couldn't wait to get out of that house. I was also pretty weird or sensitive about some things, yet completely fine with other things that people hated. Call to order delivery? Screw that, I'm staying hungry. It's 90°F out? Don't turn the A/C on in the car or I will get a headache.1.5k miles road trip by myself? Sure! Turns out I was just autistic and no one told me.

OP, you ever consider you might be autistic? Might wanna take some online questionnaires to check into it further.

Hi, fellow home artist! I have a music room, the ceiling of which I painted as the winter night sky in glow-in-the dark paint for the stars. So, the ceiling is really imitating the winter night sky.

I think you have to be the one that originates the mural fully. What feeling do you want your rooms to have? For me, I'd go with a relaxing bedroom, a strong office, and a lively kitchen.