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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 25th, 2023

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  • Idol: an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.

    I agree that they probably weren’t intended to be idols, but pictures of Jesus, Mary, the cross, etc are just objects of worship.

    Jesus’s message of universal love goes beyond the Christian religion, which feels like it only exists to promote itself instead of the values that Christ promoted.

    If Jesus were alive today I doubt he would care about the destruction of religious symbols. He’d probably say something like “Why are you concerned with a symbol when you have brothers and sisters who need help? If you really want to exalt God, go out and do His work.”

    Like, if people truly believe God is the alpha and omega do they really think they need to get offended on his behalf?

    Christianity has done a great job of putting God in a tiny box called “religion” and taking away all his power to the point where dinosaurs, evolution, and science are able to shake their faith.

    God/love/the universe is nonsense, and we get to spend our whole lives trying to figure that nonsense out.

    https://youtu.be/SzXn4PozUTo?si=h2-x0YJHqZzmuG7n





  • There are multiple housing problems and they’re all probably way more complicated than anyone wants to acknowledge. The highest priority “housing problem” right now imo is that there are people who don’t have a safe place to sleep at night.

    In order to solve that problem you need

    1. Safe housing to provide to those people
    2. A system for assigning those people to the housing.

    Building/acquiring housing costs money. If the government isn’t doing its job and spending money to solve this problem we need to

    1. Hold them accountable through voting
    2. Take matters into our own hands as a community and attempt to contribute to a local solution in whatever capacity we’re able to contribute (donations, volunteering, organizing). Once we have legitimate trustworthy organizations that are doing a good job solving the problem then we can hopefully proceed by driving more support for them.

    Creating a system to assign individuals to housing is probably the more “difficult” part because there needs to be some sort of consensus on the mechanics of prioritization. I personally think we should prioritize housing for individuals and families with children, but after that I don’t know who we should serve next.







  • Hot take: All criteria used to classify ideas and objects into distinct categories can eventually break down. The only reason to pursue the creation of classification systems is to facilitate communication. If we get to a point where we start throwing chairs at each other I’d argue were no longer willing to communicate, and so arguing about whether something is “this” or “that” is no longer a priority. The priority should become attending to the mental and emotional wellbeing of the individuals in the absence of labels.




  • maybe I probably killed him

    You didn’t kill him, the cancer did. You were there supporting him.

    I was on morphine duty when my grandpa died two years ago and it was rough. I gained a massive respect for hospice workers and the mental fortitude they have in order to work in that environment.

    My grandpa had ptsd nightmares from the Korean War his whole life and my biggest fear was that while he was dying he’d be trapped in one of those. I drove myself crazy trying to interpret his twitches and mumbles as some sort of actionable message he was sending.

    I stepped outside for a bit and imagined what he would say if he were conscious, and I’m sure it would’ve been something like “Who cares if I’m having a nightmare? Even if I am it’s not your responsibility to fix it. I’ll just ride it out and it’ll be over.” And so I went back in and just sat there quietly, occasionally making remarks or observations, talking about what I might be doing in the next few weeks or months.

    I’m really glad your mom got to have that moment. Whether or not he heard her and was responding, I hope the timing gave her some peace.


  • I have to imagine that when you die you get to experience what it feels like to let go of all your pain, and I bet that feels pretty great.

    My dad believed in “god” and died of melanoma after it got into his lymphatic system, then to his brain, and finally his spinal fluid.

    My step mom recalled a conversation she had with him in the hospital after a 2nd brain surgery where she said she was angry with God and couldn’t believe he would allow this to happen to my dad instead of a worse person. He said something like “it’s fine that this happening to me, I’m already saved. Other people still need more time.”

    I’ve never been a big fan of modern christianity since it strays so far from the fundamental teachings of love, but I always admired my dad’s ability to act in a way that aligned with his beliefs about the goodness life.

    I really don’t care if there’s an “afterlife” or not. I just hope people can find something in this life that gives them the courage to fight for life but also eventually accept death.

    The world is a fucked up place, we’re lucky that we can still find a way to enjoy it in whatever capacity we can.

    I will irrationally choose to believe that your dad will find exactly what he’s looking for when he passes.

    If you ever want to talk about anything I’m here for you in whatever capacity an internet stranger can be.