W/R/T the conversation about Tim Walz's masculinity — I think the key thing here is that he has a masculinity that doesn't come at anyone else's expense, that doesn't require anyone to feel small so he can feel big, which is very different from RW ideas about masculinity. Like, on the Right, they mostly complain that women aren't "letting" them be masculine, that men who don't conform to their ideas about masculinity are a threat to it.

They need to manspread figuratively as well as literally.

It's weird that we talk so much about a "loneliness epidemic" but we don't really talk to people about how to make friends or why they are not making friends.

So, a few things.

I've said this before and people get very angry about me — but something has to replace smoking. Yes, technology is part of it, but part of the reason it was easier to make friends is that, at one point, you could look at a person or a group of people you thought might be interesting to talk to and ask them if they had a light or a smoke and start up a conversation.

I feel like a certain amount of cruelty in this country (and elsewhere, probably), is driven by people who want to bear witness to martyrdom. Like, whenever I see Republicans talking about how rape victims should consider being forced to give birth to be a beautiful gift or getting upset about poor people not being perfect and sinless Tiny Tims, I think "this is at least partly for their own narrative pleasure."

That this broad has the gall to call *Italians* rude when she literally expects everyone around her to LARP her up a Chick Lit fantasy is *galling.*

insider.com/nyu-student-ha… "These people are nothing like Olive Garden commercials led me to believe!" And no one had a romantic fling with me and called me "bella!"

I just watched about 45 seconds of some video of Ben Shapiro's sister in which she OBLITERATES THE FEMINIST REVOLUTION. And the whole thing is about how we are constantly telling people they can't be religious stay-at-home wives.

Which I have never actually seen anyone do. I mean, I have been a feminist literally all of my life, I have read practically all the feminist things one is supposed to read, pretty much everyone I talk to is a feminist or else I wouldn't be talking to them.

No one cares about this shit.

HAVE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR YEARS.

People make jokes about kids not being hanging out at malls anymore? Kids are *banned* from malls. They're banned from parks, they're banned from parking lots, they're kicked off streets.

https://twitter.com/aWildSalem/status/1631310113175662593

Honestly very grateful that I grew up in a time where teenagers could chainsmoke in coffee shops and I'm not even joking. All of my oldest friends are friends I made while chain-smoking in coffee shops.

I really do think that part of the problem is so much less that anyone lives in a bubble and so much more that conservatives *don't* and are the sort of people who very much need that.

It's why they like small towns. In practically every other generation, they lived, rather isolated, in small towns where they were able to exert social pressure and force conformity and have that power. And any kids who were different were bullied until they broke or left and never came back.

So the claim on the Right is that states are taking a long time to count votes in order to give Democrats time to steal the elections.

And yet somehow, they never seem to explain how it is they think this is supposed to go down & why the time would be necessary. Because their other theory is that (I believe with the help of Italian hackers and their nation's very good internet that works all the time) Dems stole the 2020 election overnight.

Why would anyone need *more* time to steal an election in Arizona?

These freaks spend so much time getting furious over people they worry might think they're "BETTER THAN THEM" that they truly can't fathom that other people just live their lives the way they want without caring what they think. Oh no. I made the mistake of looking up "bioleninists," which is what he keeps calling people in his tweets.

It is fucking *bananas.*

The thing is, if this were actually happening (which it obviously is not), it would be *extremely* easy to prove. There would be video, there would be pictures, news crews would show up at schools to document it and talk to the children and teachers. So either all of these people are incredibly stupid, or they know exactly what they are doing with this shit and are specifically doing this because they want to hurt *children.*

And as truly gullible as I think they are, I'm inclined to assume the latter.

Whenever I see people being like "I was like, FORCED to vote Republican because the Left started annoying me on social media" I always wonder like ... what it is they think a politician is going to actually do to make the people they dislike "less annoying to them, personally." I remember so many people saying they were voting for Trump because they wanted their family members and people they went to high school with to stop calling them racist on Facebook, and this makes me think a lot of people just fundamentally misunderstand what politicians do.

Here's the thing.

They never say explicitly HOW. Like, what exactly the "moderate" positions are that they would want politicians to take, or what actual positions they disagree with.

This matters.

https://twitter.com/noahpransky/status/1579855882837712896

There area lot of people out there who only know enough about politics to know the "reasonable sounding" things to say about politics at cocktail parties. One of those things is claiming to be a moderate. Another is talking about how "both sides" have gone too far.

Kari Lake is obviously full of shit, but I'm gonna need to take a moment to address how the "We were fine when Bill Clinton said 'safe, legal and rare!,' but you all went TOO FAR and now we want to ban it entirely" crowd is ... also full of shit.

https://twitter.com/LaurieRoberts/status/1577439123261992960

*There are literally fewer abortions now than there were during the Clinton administration* — the biggest drop coincidentally occurring after Obama required insurers to cover birth control.

I went through 4 years of high school, however many damn years in dressing rooms for theater and dance. Not once did I see anyone's genitals.

Even the weirdly confident girls who walked around in their underwear were still walking around *in underwear.*

https://twitter.com/Caitlyn_Jenner/status/1576944904634126336

The rest of us mastered the art of changing into entirely different outfits without anyone even seeing our underwear.

Again, I gotta say — when that tape came out, my actual first reaction was "He just won the election."

Because misogyny, because there was a massive contingent of people blaming their problems on feminism & wanting to see women put in their place.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1577120967822036992

I don't see these revelations necessarily tapping into a deep well of angst like that, but I don't see them hurting him either.

A) Craigslist missed connections are still a thing, apparently
B) They're super weird now. I am absolutely delighted by how incredibly non-specific this is.

The swiftness with which "But the BABIES!" turns into "There must be consequences for whores!" every goddamned time. And I will tell you, I see so much "But what about the cis men who have sex? What about their consequences!" from our side and honestly I think one of the things they're seeking punishment *for* is for making them want to have sex in the first place.

One thing I have been thinking a lot about lately is the way in which shoulder pads/big shoulders/sleeves frequently coincide with women asserting power. Big sleeves were very popular in the Edwardian Era, right before the 19th Amendment passed, then in the '40s you had the Joan Crawford and the Letty Lynton dress in the 40s, and then, you know, the 80s with the full-on Working Girl ensemble.

Honestly I think sometimes that it would make the most sense to manage this nonsense in an entirely fictional manner.

Hear me out.

https://twitter.com/latimes/status/1535356131136229378

"The People" want to see unhoused people locked up in prison, but the least expensive and most effective way to deal with homelessness is to house people.

So do that, and just TELL all of these assholes "Yeah, you're safe now! We sent all them all to death row for being poor!"

I feel like I should explain this more, not for debate reasons, but in case anyone finds it helpful.

Adderall was effective in that it slowed me down and made it possible for me to work, but I did not really feel like myself on it and it made me feel weird physically.

https://twitter.com/RobynElyse/status/1520516901029519362

On Wellbutrin, things are slowed down but not in a *weird* way, and I feel more aware of things, generally, than I did before. I can listen and pay attention, I don't feel like I have to do a set of things before doing the thing I'm supposed to do, but I still feel like myself.

Except here's the thing — people don't just go to college for themselves. Everyone benefits from people going to college — and the absurdly high cost of it, plus all of the student loans have consequences *for all of us.*

https://twitter.com/ClistonBrown/status/1520435016550940672

For instance — doctors who have to pay off mountains of medical debt are statistically less likely to take jobs in underserved areas.

journals.lww.com/academicmedici…