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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 24th, 2023

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  • Man I have fun with hats but I feel you. Sometimes I’m like bro if I wore my glasses I’d look like the fkn soyjack. But you know what, I couldnt wear hats when I was serving at a bar. I still got a lot of attention. I met my now wife at a sales job where I couldnt wear hats. I bic it down to nothing and people want to rub it cause its shiny and smooth.

    I miss my hair, it was shoulder length in highschool. I dyed it often, I styled it like flock of seagulls or edrward scissor hands for fun, I wore a Mohawk for a while. It was great while it lasted and its okay to mourn it, Even if it was only superficial. Its natural to feel like your self image was rocked. You’re still you and you’re still valid.

    People may tease you and you gotta roll with it. When a kid says your bald ask him if he knows where your forehead ends. Whatever the answer correct them and say no its the back of my neck or whatever. It takes me a long time to get ready for bed because I dont know where to stop washing my face. Well if its good enough for that eagle its good enough for me. If you cant find peace you can sure find a hair piece… or save to go get expensive surgical solutions.

    Hope you feel better though dude







  • I think what you and many others here are hovering around is the American Civil Religion. A blend of quasi religious dogma and beliefs sold to us at a young age to form a foundation for the shared delusion of American exceptionalism.

    Might sound crazy but check out the precepts below and then keep them in mind when you hear politicians and observe the rituals that reinforce American propaganda.

    The next time you are asked to stand and put your hand over your heart for the pledge of allegiance… the moments of silence for first responders… or you hear someone say “thank you for your service”’ to some dude who at best rode a desk and at worse tortured people at a black site like gitmo. Nowadays there is less overt mention of god but the ideals themselves take the place. When I hear someone grateful for freedom I ask to do what? And if there is not more context its probably just a little prayer to uncle sam.

    In a survey of more than fifty years of American civil religion scholarship, Squiers identifies fourteen principal tenets:

    Filial piety (veneration of founding fathers in context)
    Reverence to certain sacred texts and symbols such as the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the flag
    The sanctity of American institutions
    The belief in God or a deity
    The idea that rights are divinely given
    The notion that freedom comes from God through government
    Governmental authority comes from God or a higher transcendent authority
    The conviction that God can be known through the American experience
    God is the supreme judge
    God is sovereign
    America's prosperity results from God's providence
    **America is a "city on a hill" or a beacon of hope and righteousness**
    The principle of sacrificial death and rebirth
    America serves a higher purpose than self-interests (AKA spreading democracy, liberating any county that nationalizes their resources [or has very good bananas)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat)
    

    He further found that there are no statistically significant differences in the amount of American civil religious language between Democrats and Republicans, incumbents and non-incumbents nor Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates.[5]: 51–74

    Rotted everyones brains out


  • Yeah I absolutely relate to this, but challenging people yo be objective and showing them a new perspective* that is outside of the norm is not gaslighting. Asking someone to question their behavior is not gaslighting. Especially when you are here applying the same reasoning to yourself.

    Gaslighting is intentionally making somebody question their perceivable reality with the intent to manipulate for your own gain. I don’t think this applies to philosophical questions of morality unless you are contradicting and forcing your beliefs on them through some type of moral absolutism. I also don’t think it applies if you convince someone the closed down shop was a hot dog stand and it was actually a Burger stand so long as you were honestly mistaken. If you keep them in the dark intentionally after learning the truth that would probably be though.

    It is possible also that your definition of truth is too broad and you need to interject some self doubt, since we’ve all been wrong before, and maybe in that invitation to discuss both possibilities your approach will be refined.

    In line with what others here are saying, I have the same thoughts as you and i got diagnosed with ADHD late, the psychiatrist mentioned I fit multiple criteria for ASD but that ADHD correctly captures most symptoms so we go with that. If possible taking assessments and talking to a profrssional should help cut down on these instances where you assume the worst of yourself.