Chant this at political opposition. Table the turns.

I was thinking middle school as I reflected on this throughout the day, but reserved judgement so as not to lump everyone together, particularly when I myself have limited data to go off. A correct guess does not a psychic make. It does make me dismally depressed that I blithered my way into recess at the playground while searching out a group of my peers. In truth I hated kids when I was one, and no inducement would suffice to lure me back into their company. Knowing that I did so of my own accord, with discretionary time earmarked for pleasant diversions, just makes me want to delete my account and spend my free time staring at the wall. I'd ask why you stick around but it doesn't make a difference.

It was inevitable that my tenure here flare up and fizzle out. It's for the best. My wife was getting increasingly irritated at the amount of my time and headspace that was going towards this site. When an activity ceases to produce value for anyone or anything, doing nothing is an improvement, and in truth this was eating into time I really needed to be spending on things of relevance to more than just myself.

Cheers mate. It's been real. ✌️

Cool man. Take it easy. I'm sorry you didn't stick around longer.

Tl;dr I'm back and I'd be stoked to have you follow me so we can chat from time to time.
...
Well I'm a liar. I promised to swear this off for good and all and here I am half a week later posting and commenting like before. 😳
A 12 year old's threats to run away from home and never come back could have lasted longer than that.

On the plus side...uh...memes, I guess? 😶‍🌫️
It was extraordinarily foolish of me to want to throw down my rifle and run away when there are still so many worthwhile people here with whom to interact. I used to think it was validation I craved, then later the desire to placate my ego with positive feedback. In truth I believe what drives me is the search for worthwhile conversation, perhaps the rarest gem of all. 💎

Wait, does the demo in democracy stand for demonstrate or demolish? 🤔😏

Dem/o is the root word for both of those words. It is also the same word in dem/ographic.

Dem/o being the word for "people." So, no.

That's like saying the "Re" in Republican stands for "retard." It really brings into question one's literary affinity.

English is in dire need of a dye job--its roots have been showing for centuries. Perhaps it's time for a reboot.

Inflammable demonstrates the meaning a prefix carries derives from the language from which it was borrowed. Words like congress and sanction demonstrate that a word can convey opposite meanings even with the selfsame prefix. The demo in democracy means people, and the re(s) in republic means thing. So it would be more accurate to say that democrats favor governance by people, and republicans favor governance by a thing. Which isn't too far off--democrats favor democracy, which puts the will of the people in charge, and republicans favor republic, which puts the will of money (a thing) in charge. Any overlap between adherence to the latter modality and being retarded would be (etymologically) coincidental.

*ones *acumen would be a more fitting word than affinity.

It is unfortunate that brief writing is a poor medium for sarcasm, though upon reflection my initial comment was rather...sophomoric.

Thanks for clearing that up.

I didn't know who you were, so there was no way for me to know you without additional context whether your comment was sarcastic or not. So, I take you at face value for your words. Further, the sorts of new people who come to this stream (in my experience) are 1:4 Based Americans (Classic Republicans Included) to the Hyper-Right MAGA crowd. As such, I can be hypervigilant.

🖖🧐 Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to clarify myself.

For what it's worth, I have the utmost respect for the people who act with intent to safeguard their tribe agaist harmful outside influence. You are correct to be wary and right to suss out the motivations of unfamiliar parties. (You are therefore also highly worthy of mod status, though that's neither here nor there, nor my place to critique one way or the other.)

When I was first introduced to my now wife's closest friend, he was a little tipsy and introduced himself by saying "I've heard so much about you! X is a very close friend of mine so IF YOU BREAK HER HEART I'LL FXCKING KILL YOU." (Somewhat theatrically--he wasn't serious.) My immediate response was to shake his hand and say "you're a loyal friend! I value that in people." Dude's a great guy, in part because he cares about others as much as he cares about himself. A laudable quality all to often lacking in people I'm afraid...and a luxury I suspect will last only as long as the daily food deliveries continue to roll in. 🙊

Just food for thought. Something of which to be mind-full. 😉

Yeah I cringe when people say "I'm going to kill you for X." I've heard it so often...

When people say it online it's so transparently meaningless I either ignore it or deliberately try to piss the person off more, depending on my mood.

When they say it in person...well, I've only ever heard it in person before from that one guy and my former roommate who had bipolar, schizoaffective and multiple personality disorders. I told him (the him that threatened me) that if he thought his life would be improved by ending mine, then as a friend, I WELCOMED it. Last time I ever heard that threat in the 6 years we lived together. Of course without a death wish I would have been considerably less eager to call his bluff.

You guys had an awesome friendship.

Lol, it was never boring, that's for sure. The hardest part was watching him racked with guilt, falling over himself to apologize for things he didn't rememeber doing. He was forever cleaning up messes made by other occupants of the fxched-off time-share that was his mind. Honestly thought he was just moody until after about a year I realized each personality was only aware of the time during which it was active. In other words, his memories were always full of gaps he couldn't directly account for. And it was always the 2 or 3 "base" personas (the ones I associated with the person I considered my friend) who were left with the remorse (and consequences) of the misdeeds perpetrated by his...malignant persona. Tough hand he was dealt. I was one of only a handful of people to ever show him kindness and one of an even smaller number not to fuxk him over. His parents were among the worst offenders. Extremely intelligent, white, male, overbearing mom, severe psychological abuse as a child...based on his predisposition, in the majority of parallel universes he followed his rightful calling as a serial killer.

Ah, when you said "Multiple Personality Disorders." I thought you meant Multiples of personality disorders. Not Multiple instances of Personality Disorders - which is a misnomer. As well as using the phrase "Schizophrenic" to describe what you're telling me.

What you're referring to is called "Dissociative Identity Disorder." Basically, your mind is being so traumatized (usually as a child) so much that you pretend it is happening to someone else. Normally, this is an OK method to use in extreme situations. The problem begins when the defense mechanism is used for too long, you've essentially gaslit yourself into willing this identity into existence.

With certainty, that's as far as the extent of my knowledge goes on the subject. My wife has spoken with me numerous times about the topic because it's fairly rare, and even more rare to have more than one defense personality.

My wife currently works as a therapist with teenagers in a group home. She has a Master's in Forensic Psychology. She seeks to get her PhD in the same, but with a focus on working with abuse victims/survivors. That's why she's working at the home now, so that she can get accepted into a PhD program (She applied w/o job experience and they told her that her academics were nothing short of pristine, but she had no experience to draw from. She's glad she did.)

Interesting...I missed the memo that the condition formerly known as "multiple personality disorder" had been renamed "dissociative identity disorder". His disgnosis ocurred prior to 1994 but you'd think I'd have heard about the name change before now. The schizoaffective disorder diagnosis was consistent with the symptoms he presented as he did have regular auditory hallucinations. If anything it was the bipolar diagnosis I looked at askance because he never exhibited symptoms of mania, or even hypomania. My layman's diagnosis would be depressive schizoaffective disorder and, to update the terminology, disassociative identity disorder. (I appreciate the update--in the 28 years since DID became the preferred term you're literally the first one to mention it!)

It's awesome that your wife is taking post in such a valuable field, and one for which demand is sure to continue to increase.