It’s not just fundies who are homeschooling. A very well-loved (and very liberal) family friend of mine started a home-school co-op for her kids and their neighbors because they were seriously unimpressed with the district test scores in science and social studies. Her kids are intelligent, independent, well-adjusted, and well-read.

She did it because she lived in a red-state and wanted a modern, coherent, first-class education for her kids instead of theocratic indoctrination.

That sounds HeLa awkward.

Fair point.

I was vegan as a health necessity for a few years. I still prefer eating veggies wherever possible, but when I’m living in someone else’s home and have to adhere to someone else’s diet, it’s not always possible.

Unfortunately, you hit the nail on the head there. When you’re so used to having someone tell you what to do, for every little action from how to dress to how to speak, you become dependent on it for everything.

Source: Left a cult. Had to relearn ‘good’ and ‘bad’ in therapy.

Hi. I was born in Utah.

The statistics presented here likely primarily include Mormons. Mormons, granted, tend to experience higher rates of senses of well-being due to thorough, lifelong conditioning into a religion that (to put it very very lightly) trains and encourages wishful thinking and group conformity to levels that would make a tankie blush.

Those who leave this religion (cult that has the all-time gold medal championship title in doublethink and mental gymnastics in archeology) tend to experience significantly higher rates of suicide, mortality, and depression. The youth suicide rate alone shot up 192% from 2009 to 2014. https://www.rationalfaiths.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/LGBTQStats-2.pdf

Speaking from personal experience, Utah is a theocracy, straight up. The church controls everything from the state congress to the real estate. They have loopholes in the department of education that allow ecclesiastical education at public schools. I’d know, I graduated from one.

Fuck Utah.

Instructions unclear, dyslexia made me blow the job interviewer.

I am only a little bit gay for this. 😳 J-just a bit.

Hair grows back. Pretty fast, actually. It is extremely cheap, you can do it in your own bathroom. There is virtually no long-term consequence to one’s health in regards to doing crazy stuff with your hair. It’s cathartic and rewarding, and a pretty awesome boost to your confidence to own your own body and identity to the point where you can walk around with brick-red liberty spikes.

Skin, bones, and facial features, however, are a very different story. That is expensive. And it doesn’t fucking grow back.

Source: I have blue hair.

I think the stigma around virility and fertility is where the shame comes from. Monkey brains, after all. Wish we’d just evolve a tiiiiiny bit. Sex isn’t everything. Hell, I think the statistic is that we spend less than 1% of our lives total doing the sideways conga.

I mean, I have a severe mental disorder. But I try extremely hard to not let it turn me into a jerk.

Love reinventing the aristocracy.

10 years old. When I saw The Rocketeer, when Jenny found Neville Sinclair’s secret radio room to talk to his Nazi handlers.

Double lung transplants? Before 45? In this country? In one of the most impoverished parts of the country?

I can name maybe 5 people who deserve that. The average idiot who believed a psychopathic liar doesn’t deserve that.

Yzma moment right here.

Narcissists, Machiavellians, and megalomaniacs will always be what they are. But people who’ve been brainwashed literally don’t know any better. I wish I could say it more kindly, but having been on the receiving end of a lifetime of indoctrination into something obviously stupid, I have some sympathy for the people who believed a liar.

I loved it when my dad held my hand.

I’m nearly 30 now, and our political and religious views are (as an understatement) wildly different in most respects. But I still love my dad, and I would do damn near anything for him. Because he did damn near anything for me.

Sent this to a friend. Xe laughed and said, “If they have an issue with it, they can come find me and tell me. Good luck, BTW, we make up less than 1% of the population. If people that rare are pissing you off, find a fucking hobby.”

Trying to get PulseAudio to behave, and trying to figure out how to roll back Bluez and Blueman.

You can’t deny, even though it was literally just straight American imperialist propaganda, it was a fun game series. And my lesbian ass definitely had a huge girl crush on Tanya.

Command and Conquer?

If we play Red Alert, I call Great Britain!