DARE is a program that would tell kids insane shit, like smoking a joint would make you addicted for life or the story about someone taking acid and staring at the sun until their eyes burn out. The kind of story you are sharing sounds like a DARE urban legend.

If you want information about drugs that is honest/from a risk reduction perspective, Erowid is a great source.

I know (2nd hand) of someone who became dependent using it only once!!

???

You know someone who is addicted to shrooms/LSD?

I’ve only done shrooms, but it’s not really a thing where you can just “go on with your day.” I have done all of my trips solo as well - not something I would recommend to others, but it’s possible to prepare a safe environment with the kinds of things needed to distract from “bad trips.”

It’s very hard to imagine what being addicted to LSD/shrooms would look like - unless you’re microdosing, it’s a “trip” which takes a lot out of you. Iirc even medically the effects are lessened if you don’t wait long enough between doses. You don’t get euphoria, you get something a lot more complicated. It’s not really the kind of experience one gets “addicted” to in the same way - not chemically and I don’t think psychologically.

Everyone should check out Erowid and unlearn the DARE hysteria.

over a quarter of an ounce of marijuana

So like $100-200 worth of weed? Unless it was like shake or something.

Do you think math is something that we decide/invent?

Many of the things that might look esoteric or hard to understand often do have some non-abstract meaning/application. “Imaginary” numbers are a good example - they have applications in electrical engineering and can be understood to represent phases/rotation. (Although those weirdos use a “j” instead of an “i”)

Unless you’re doing extremely high level math - like doctoral level - I can guarantee you there is some application.

Unironically a good idea. I saw a lot of therapists as a kid, and many of them were more fucked up than I was.

I had one trying to help me “recover” memories of CSA by vividly describing her own experiences of CSA. 80% of the therapy I do now is to recover from therapy then.

Dr Phil isn’t allowed to practice anymore - he started treating a college freshman for anxiety and depression, gave her a job and then started fucking her.

What he does on television has done immense damage to understandings of mental health. That bullshit disgusting tough love, while at the same time being a hypocritical creep and serial adulterer. Send his ass to Turnabout Ranch.

During the beginning of the pandemic, there was this bit where they recognized teachers. Just a moment - but there was some acknowledgment of how complicated it was to have to pivot to virtual, how some of us did shit like deliver stuff to students or volunteer for the kitchens to help get out free lunches.

I didn’t need a medal, but it would have been nice to have acknowledgement of “a student tried to kill themselves in your classroom and you kept calm.” When children and teenagers were physically aggressive with me, unlike a cop, I had to come up with strategies that aren’t shooting them. (Several teachers were injured in riots at our feeder middle school lol.)

Yeah, as Americans we’re very fixated on our particular fascist - but there’s still Erdoğan, Lukashenko, Orban, Bukele, Putin…

Early video game copyright history was also a lot more loosy goosie. Bethesda cut its teeth on Terminator licensed games, because no one really cared about video games and corporations would give away licensing rights for a song.

If you look at early gaming history, there’s a lot of stuff that wouldn’t fly today copyright wise. (Iirc Nethack has enemies from Tron, folks very happily made and distributed Star Trek fan games - heck, in the early 00’s you could buy unofficial mod packs for video games in stores.)

Yeah - it’s always been just a weird way to try to tie a negative connotation to “cares about other human beings and doesn’t want to hurt their feelings unnecessarily.”

So the binary is “trans people” versus “fascist oligarchs”?

The owners probably voted for Trump.

If undocumented workers start to talk about unions or working conditions, then you can call in ICE. Once the troublemakers are gone, hire another round of workers, rinse and repeat.

Your girlfriend is a teenager, you are an adult. Teenagers are still going through cognitive development. There are power dynamics between an adult, who has access to financial resources and independence, and a teenager, who does not.

I’m guessing this is the verse you are referencing?

Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone.

That’s not a commandment from God saying that he’ll cut peoples dicks off if they piss against the wall, that’s part of a curse where God is saying that he’s going to destroy Jeroboam’s family line. Its a curse on a specific guy in history.

Catholics still do infant baptism, as do several Protestant groups.

I think adult baptism popped up in a few heresies/other groups - like maybe the Cathars did it and iirc a few early heresies - but really became a thing post Protestant reformation with groups like the Anabaptists. (Like, Baptists are called such because they specifically reject infant baptism.)

There is also a lot of other kinds of fraud and abuse going on with many people who treat schizophrenics because… who’s going to believe them?

Certainly. When I was inpatient I saw them drug a man and lock him in a small closet.

The state won’t investigate the fact that I was assaulted - they sure as shit won’t ever believe anything that man says.

I don’t understand why the state of the mental health system is so fucked. and why no one seems to be trying to fix it.

Just wait until they start going after insurance for PREP, PEP and Doxy.

The “targeted individual” stuff is sad. There’s lots of tiny YouTube and TikTok accounts where people plead to their imaginary tormentors to stop, or angrily rant about how they’re ultimately going to win.

I posted on the TI subreddit a few times trying to encourage people to reach out for help/take their medicine, but yeah - you just become part of the conspiracy, or you simply don’t get it.