My son's a straight A, all advanced student. He also loves cars. The counselor said "Um, our automotive program is for kids who aren't on the college track." OK. My son doesn't know that he wants to do college, and he wants to tinker with cars. Put him in the class.

Let me /1 translate the counselor, knowing what I know now: "Automotive program is part of our fast track to try to get kids we find frustrating out of school as painlessly (for us) as possible."

My son's done with the class, despite there being weeks left. It's all done via computer, /2

I have a story. The other day I met up with an old friend at an event and, in the process, met his wife for the first time. She was wearing a shirt that said Love and had a heart shaped pride flag, and I was shocked at my internal visceral reaction upon seeing it. Now, I'm a /1

https://twitter.com/ArchaicRevival4/status/1636010190041501697

person who has been actively pro gay rights for the entirety of my adult life, starting back in the early 80's, when being vocally so wasn't particularly smooth sailing, especially in the deep south where I lived. My reaction wasn't to the message on the shirt - my reaction /2

I guess it tracks that at the same time academia is being exposed for the cultish institution it has become, we have silver spoon 'intellectuals' like Sam Harris unveiling themselves as classist technocrats. Having lived in a super rich, super liberal, super educated town in /1

https://twitter.com/TheRabbitHole84/status/1628516760986206208

Oregon for a decade, the Trump/Covid years was profoundly revealing. These people who position themselves as your allies are actually, in their own heads, your caretakers. As soon as you step out of line, as soon as you dare to question or think independently they shift to /2

There are interesting discussions transpiring here in the ATL. Voices online get amplified regardless of how marginal their views are. Here's the truth: Most folks here aren't happy that people traveled from other states to do this in their city. An even more interesting convo /1 is also trending among the very large black community here: they're tired of white folks doing shit like this, calling it activism and flying the BLM flag over it, drawing negative, and false, parallels.
This is what activism appears to be in 2023: folks (overwhelmingly white /2

I know someone who was unvaxxed and died from covid. Admittedly, he was put on a vent, but still. I also know someone who was vaccinated and died from covid. I know people, vaxxed and unvaxxed, who have wound up very, very sick from covid. Lately, all the people I know who /1 have become very sick from covid are vaxxed - all of them. The people I know who are unvaxxed either aren't getting it or it's manifesting as the sniffles.
Meanwhile, I know personally of people, including young, fit people, who have died suddenly. I know scads of people who /2

During the Christmas gatherings I was confronted by a liberal family member about me 'becoming Republican' after having been one of the biggest lefties she's known. Soapbox time:
I was a lefty. I thought I was a member of a group that distrusted big government. That /1 distrusted big business. That distrusted big pharma. That distrusted the security state. That recognized that war is a tool of the elite. That believed in bodily autonomy. That believed in protecting children and cherishing the innocence of adolescence. That believed that trad /2

As the father of a teenager, let me help: This isn't just about covid or lockdowns. This is about thrusting children into a neurotic adult world far, far too early. One of my kids' best friends went to a remote, outward bound style summer camp deep last summer. She came back /1

https://twitter.com/AlecMacGillis/status/1600153777503277057

giddy, and told her mom how amazing it was that the entire time she was there no one talked about climate change or politics or activism or genders. For 2 weeks, they were all allowed to just be kids again.
Parents - liberals in particular - think they're churning out little /2

Well that blew up. I will admit, some of what informs me is personal. I work with 25 year olds who make 6 figures working full time remote, and when they're apoplectic over minor grievances I can't help but think "At your age I worked construction during the day, unloaded /1 trucks at night, lived in a roach infested efficiency and forged car insurance cards because I couldn't afford it. But yes, tell me more about how angry you are that you're asked to fill out your time sheet daily."

Do things suck now? Yup. But it has always sucked. If /2

I hear young people and the newly political talk about quitting the game and collective power and how 'people are waking up,' and I can only smile and nod. As a over-50 lapsed lefty, I've been hearing this stuff my whole life. My OG hippy mother in law has been saying /1 this stuff for nigh on 60 years now. In her mind, we're perpetually on the precipice of 'people waking up,' and if all we did was not participate in the process just a little harder, it'd be the tipping point that would set us all free. Meanwhile, look at where we are. While a /2

Goddammit, I'm done with the 'kids are resilient' trope. When I was 3 my mother married a man who did not want children. Other than to clean, I was banished from public spaces of the house. I was expected to stay in my room unless an adult needed me for something. /1 I was punished for spending unapproved time in the family room or kitchen or anywhere other than my room or bathroom. It was only much later, when I had made friends at school and was able to go to their houses, that I realized how fucked this was. /2