That’s exactly it, yep. I’m well over apologizing at this point.

And yeah, I also moved back home for a while after college, and it was a bad time. Plenty of good, but plenty I’m glad to leave behind. Let us all strive to be better people than our parents were, I say.

I’m glad you’re out, and I hope you’re doing well. Stay safe out there!

Yeah, I’m conflicted about my family enough as it is. But push comes to shove, I’m fine on my own at this point.

Ah, that’s the thing. He never demanded an apology. He sulked, and it was others in the family who learned about it (through either me or him) that told me I was wrong and to apologize.

I’ve never been one to back down from a conflict I thought was worthwhile. It wasn’t until I was literally a married adult when an in-law (whom we love dearly) told my SO about how my family “sweeps things under the rug”. When my SO told me later, I was like “nah… but wait do we though?” That led to a lot of revisiting old memories and realizing how conflict avoidant we really were (except for me, lol).

Yeah, if either of my parents demanded an apology from me for anything right now… they have some choice words coming.

My dad was smart when I was growing up. He is smart now.

But he’s so entrenched in the worst right wing political lunacy, and always has been, that I’ve rarely viewed him as someone to imitate morally.

I blew up at him as a teen over the Iraq War. He never once justified his position in anything remotely resembling a reasoned argument, but I hurt his feelings, so I had to apologize to him about it. That family dynamic has never really changed, so I just don’t talk to him anymore.

I’m extremely happy with the process I’ve had, but I understand it’s very likely not representative of the rest of us here.

By and large, you’re right though. My wife has gone through similar struggles and hasn’t been medicated for over a year because of it.

I haven’t gotten back to that yet.

But I’m on meds now. So the next thing I’m gonna try to do is fill my schedule a bit more. If I’m doing more, that’s less time for my brain to fill that time with analysis paralysis and more time doing stuff I enjoy. The byproduct, hopefully, is that my brain will just be happier overall with the added stimulation. Or so the theory goes, at least.

Two things started the slow 10ish year journey to atheism for me. I can’t remember which happened first.

Some Mormon lads doing their mandatory missionary work knocked on our door when I was home alone. I decided, screw it, kill them with kindness. Maybe I’ll convert them! After I got them some ice water, they started the spiel. It was so stupid, how could anyone believe this? Then I thought, wait, how is what I believe any more believable? That was an unsettling thought that I could never really shake.

I also challenged myself to read the entire Bible (NIV) front to back (which I did, thankyouverymuch). I already had a lot of apologetics for the pentateuch warfare, slavery, etc. but in Psalms there’s a verse that basically goes, “blessed is he who dashes the babies on the rocks.” And like. What the fuck is that. In what possible circumstances is killing babies okay, let alone with God’s explicit endorsement? That also stuck in my head ever since.

There was a lot else in between, but years later I stumbled into a copy of The God Delusion. “Know thine enemy, right?” So I read it on lunch breaks at work. While I now know the book has a reputation for kinda bad philosophy, by the end it had tidily dismantled the last vestiges of the purely “rational” arguments to believe in God I still had. So I sat there, an atheist for the first time in my life.

In contrast, I have never been able to see blue and black, even though that’s objectively what it is.

As a full ass adult who just very recently discovered I have ADHD, I feel both called out and seen.

Not necessarily applicable to everybody, but if you find yourself with a short fuse, I highly recommend getting checked out for sleep apnea.

Imagine going to sleep for 8-10 hours a night but always feeling a bit tired and very irritable. Because in reality, you barely sleep at all. That’s what sleep apnea does, and I can personally start that, if that’s your problem, addressing it is a world changer.

Meanwhile Guilty Gear has BEDMAN.

Who is, in fact, a man who is now a bed.

I don’t have that fear, no. But I’ve also never really had my privacy invaded in ways I didn’t officially condone, either. I bet if that happened even once I’d be a bit more anxious about it.

Sodium ion batteries are also supposedly gearing up to be a solid li-ion alternative in the next 2-3 years. Not as energy dense yet but they’re closing the gap.

Fingers crossed that pans out.

I’d eat bugs well before I tried to eat another human, billionaire or not.

But if you gave me a flyswatter to kill a random bug or a gun to kill a random CEO, and I HAD to choose one or the other… the bug would probably make it out alive.

I suppose I’m more thinking about examples like one in this comment section where they see a ghost sober in the middle of the day.

I do not currently believe in any supernatural anything, for the exact same reasons I do not believe in gods.

1. There is no persuasive evidence of anything supernatural
2. Many supernatural phenomena were discovered to have naturalistic explanations
3. The only evidence provided for supernatural phenomena is anecdotal

It’s entirely possible for there to be supernatural stuff, but the time to believe it is when it is demonstrated.

One point that I don’t see raised a lot is that otherwise perfectly mentally healthy people can experience hallucinations. They may even find them comforting, and some even then do not believe the visions are real. I have a suspicion that a lot of ghost sightings, etc, might be such hallucinations. But I can’t demonstrate that, and I’m honestly not sure how we could, unless we can find a way to trigger such hallucinations on purpose.

I am straight, but my social media habits put me into a lot of contact with memes from gay, lesbian, pan, and everything else under the sun. A lot of it seems relatable, even if I never experience those same feelings IRL with real people. Definitely makes me question my sexuality semi regularly, lol.

Good Lord. What does that even mean?

So, to be a different kind of doomer than the rest of the comments…

How does one do community? I realize that sounds stupid, but like… what can I do to help foster community in my… community?

I ask because tbh I’m not a community builder. When I was a kid, I was raised in a church community, and I knew vaguely what went into that, but I’m not religious anymore. So the only path to community that I’m even remotely familiar with is not viable for me anymore.

I don’t need a treatise or anything, but if you have any practical introductory advice on community building for terminally online leftists with a couple small friend groups, that’d be welcomed.

Hey I comment from time to time, that’s contributing! Kind of!