There are a number of high profile candidates who very clearly articulated “not right vs left - top vs bottom” at every turn. Class awareness is growing. Not sure if it is widespread enough to have a big impact yet, but it is becoming part of the conversation.

And let’s be clear here - “Christian Nationalism” is not Christian at all. I’m not Christian but far as I can tell Jesus himself was a “love each other” guy not a “political power” guy. I’m all for rebelling against the church but Jesus the guy had some great teachings and was in no way seeking political power. I don’t have beef with him.

Cowboys are awesome - but there were a lot of stereotypes of Native Americans + women associated with that era. It’s unfortunately tricky to revisit the Cowboy thing in a way that doesn’t also revive a bunch of unhelpful stereotypes.

My mom isn’t big on Legos but she does garden - there are some very cool botanical sets that they didn’t have when I was a kid! Fun for the family Lego people and also fun for grandma.. am really enjoying those.

I mean I’m in my 50s and for years Reddit was awesome for me. Sure “Reddit” didn’t make all those posts themselves - but they created a space where folks like me could (and did) enjoy contributing and engaging.

Has been getting worse for a long time, but that doesn’t mean it was never good.

I don’t mind that Reddit in some ways profited from the content I contributed- because

1. I got enormous value from the site and it was 100% free for me
2. I intentionally was contributing to the site knowing that they would host my content and potentially profit from it.

AI takes without consent and charges for benefit

Agree “many obvious reasons”. That said I feel as though there may be some merit to the “we need a way to keep AI bots from just taking all our content and reselling it via AI”.

There are a million other reasons to stop using Reddit and I won’t be going back.

But for years they built up a ton of great user contributed content. Just like it’s unfair for art, music, other content to be absorbed / plagiarized and repackaged as AI… it is also unfair that web bots steal all the old/good Reddit content and don’t give credit + make money off content generated by old Reddit.

Note: reddit bad. Also AI plagiarism bad.

So I am a girl. I feel like it’s not controversial to say the obvious = on average men are taller and stronger than women.

This does not mean you can assume the height of someone knowing their gender. It does not mean that tall women are less female / somehow masculine, or that short men are less male / more feminine.

It bothers me that we are fine with “on average men are taller/stronger”, but we can’t even bring up the subject of “are there intellectual differences” without upsetting people.

I say this as a woman whose brain is good at some things that men are more often drawn to. My experience is that of course there are women who are drawn to / excel at data structures and programming… I am one of them. But on average men are more likely to be good at that sort of work. I know some of that is because of cultural norms / social pressure, but “some”, not “all”.

I’m female so I can say this without getting hauled into HR for diversity training, but there are men who are called sexist for even brining it up.

I don’t think it’s sexist to acknowledge that testosterone and estrogen have different effects on a developing human brain.

I DO think it’s sexist that we pay top dollar for engineering expertise and next to nothing to people who teach and care for children - which in my mind is both more difficult to do well and FAR more important.

I know sex is a different topic than race, but… it feels culturally sensitive in a similar way I guess?

If you are tense and emotionally uncomfortable and/or the doctor is rough or rushed or just uncaring = it can be a bad experience.

Generally speaking the speculum is not comfortable but not painful. It is there so they can use a swab to get a sample from the woman’s cervix to check for abnormal/cancer cells. Some women don’t even feel the swab and others find it painful - most feel it but don’t find it particularly painful. If they do find problematic cells they cut a little bit off the cervix for testing.

I have always had nice doctors - when I was younger I felt a little weirded out - but never uncomfortable or in any pain. Until I had a cervical biopsy- which did hurt and left me cramping for a bit. But it hurt at around the level it hurts to get stuck with a needle when you give blood. Yes, it hurt - but not severe.

It’s just much much more scary to hurt in a sensitive area then it is to hurt on, say, your arm.

Agree. There are some things American agrees on - example: if you are white don’t use the N word.

But there are a lot of other words/norms that we don’t agree on. Or ones that used to be ok and now aren’t. Example: Sweet Sixteen was a sweet and funny movie when it came out. Now it’s full of rape jokes and racist stereotypes. Same movie - culture changed.

Some folks adapted to those changes more quickly than others. Some folks want norms to change even more. Some folks still didn’t get the memo / are annoyed that people are acting like anything is different.

I did like that movie (am female, 50s) but I also agree it’s a good thing that rape jokes have become less ok. That said - I have a lot of compassion for folks who adapt more slowly. There are jokes you could make 20 yrs ago and everyone would laugh- but the same joke today will get you fired.

I think it’s really important to be kind and patient with folks who are slow to get the memo. I want to be respectful but he/she is a very hard habit to break. I’ll give it the old college try, but if you think I am a bad person for having a hard time adapting to that then I think your expectations are wildly unrealistic.

Even positive changes take time. Be kind to each other. If someone is unkind for sure call them out! But don’t get your panties in a wad of their language or humor is a little outdated but their actions are kind.

I mean Disney’s lawyer game is top notch. I would love to see the mouse vs AI battle.

I mean gambling is shitty but we don’t hold folks that make alcohol responsible for folks getting addicted to alcohol.

I’m not familiar with legal gambling, but theoretically there is a percentage of users that partake casually for fun - yes? And others who get addicted. Same with booze.

Obviously the overall experience of gambling is more predatory/distasteful, but I’m not sure that means they should be legally responsible for the folks who get addicted. If the booze makers and sellers are not responsible for providing a potentially addictive product, why are they?

Agree completely- I adore people who are excited about anything and tell me about it with enthusiasm!

That said - it needs to be mutual. Awesome for you to lecture me on your passions - but it’s not a fun relationship for me if you aren’t also eager to hear about the things I want to share.

You can always stop and call for help.

Don’t do anything you aren’t trained to do, and always ask “can I help?” / get verbal consent if they are conscious.

The danger is just if you have bad judgement. Say you saw a tourniquet on a TV show so you think you know when it’s appropriate to use a tourniquet - or if someone is injured and you decide to move them which makes them MORE injured. (Note: you CAN move them away from a fire or something that would otherwise kill them. “More injuries” is better than dead.)

But you can ALWAYS stop and be kind and call for help and wait with them!

If you act in good faith and aren’t trying to “play doctor” when you aren’t one - no jury is going to punish you for that. If there aren’t good Samaritan laws in your state (there are in most) they might be able to take you to court but they won’t win.