confusedpuppy

I appreciate the suggestions but this brings up another issue that I have had with these types of conversations. Far too many of the people I've spoken to live in a constant state of hypocrisy or contradiction.

It's going to be hard for me to fully explain this as I just don't have the energy to deal with people anymore and have chosen to keep in contact with very few people over the past few years. That is to say, my contact with people in general has been somewhat limited.

It does somewhat go back to my points about defensiveness and defending peoples and systems that are oppressive. On many occasion, explaining certain hypocrisies as simply and clearly to the best of my efforts was still seen as an attack on themselves. The simple suggestion that change for all requires change on a personal level was unthinkable for them.

Even though capitalism is causing so much unhappiness in their lives, they want it to stay because it seems to me that it brings them a sort of comfort through habit or routine. Disrupting what brings their vision of comfort is scary and so they react in hostility.

I say all this through my experience of fighting for the right to be treated with dignity in a workplace that was crumbling under it's own weight of sexism, racism, classism and ageism. Where it was important to have as many people be supportive of what I was fighting for so we could all benefit together. What I received was constant shame and belittlement for opposing authority alongside praises for opposing authority. From the same people. Does that make sense? Not to me.

Humans are complex. Far too complex for me to even attempt to explain how complex they can be. Unfortunately, I just no longer have the energy or patience to continue. Especially as a person of colour in a small conservative town.

Both points are very valid. I have had a difficult time trying to approach the topic of alternatives to capitalism with other people.

I try to speak to them in language that they would understand. I also try to speak to them in a way that would empathise with them. I am very careful with my words because I do not want to accidentally or directly attack them and cause a defensive response. Once someone becomes defensive, they are more likely to reject what's being said to them and become hostile towards me and my lifestyle.

The most common issue I have in these conversations is that the other person I'm talking to appears to be unable to imagine another life without capitalism. All their problem solving skills heavily rely on buying more. Their long term goals center around accumulating wealth. The people they look up to and attempt to follow are all wealth hoarders.

I don't expect to be able to deprogram anyone from the constant propaganda produced by capitalism. It does sadden me though. The people that I talked to are just not curious about any alternatives and would rather defend a lifestyle and the systems that oppresses their very own happiness and freedom to be themselves. These conversations exhaust me and now I'm just too low on energy to have the motivation to try anymore.

I do hope to one day see the start of change. Where common people finally understand just how hilariously outnumbered wealth hoarders are and begin to work together to rebuild communities that reject and fight against such oppressive peoples and systems.

Unfortunately without much support, especially from any local community, it's hard to even approach this issue.

I'm okay with this, I'm away for the next two weeks so there's no one to manage my garden except to water it. I'm going to give a few excess cucumbers to my neighbours before I leave though.

I'm also big into collecting seeds and have plans to save a few cucumbers to allow them to age naturally. At least I assume that's what I can do. This is the first year I've managed to grow cucumbers and not just the flowers. I also have a habit of letting plants grow a bit wild the first time as I watch how they grow. This way I have a better understanding for myself of how to manage them next year.

It seems like I could treat the cucumber plant sort of like the tomato plant, trimming excess growth to promote veggie/fruit growth but I haven't gotten that far with experimenting yet.

It's actually a trick of the lens, those cucumbers are obscenely huge... I didn't even plant cucumbers there, they just showed up and took over.

I may have "lost" a cucumber in the grass, sure hope whoever finds it enjoys it :)

When his arm is hanging at rest, in a neutral positon when standing, that tattoo will be upside down.

From my experience and from listening to others, good artists will make an effort to point this out. Especially with something as permanent as a tattoo.

I going to believe that the artist who did this purposely forgot to mention this little bit of information for the pettiest of reasons because it makes me giggle a little.

It brings me some comfort seeing how clear and easy to understand language is being used against these angry people.

They are being forced to explain their behaviour instead of arguing the specifics of words. It's subtle but effective in my opion.

I am really enjoying this.

I've been enjoying the use or weird lately. I've had some strong personal opinions on language lately. A lot of it comes with a huge increase of new words that sort of seem abstract from it's meaning.

I think with how rapid information can spread to large groups of people, it's just too fast for my mind to keep up. All of a sudden I feel like I'm in a war with words and who knows which landmine of a word will get you in trouble. It causes me even more anxiety when someone comes at you with manipulative intentions in order to control the direction of the discussion.

I think weird works because it's an almost basic word. It's simple and descriptive. It's not a newer, more specific word that requires a deeper understanding of a broader topic. It's understood by more people. People with varying degrees of language knowledge including people whose native language is not English. It's easier for more people to understand.

It's a lot easier to understand someone is weird compared to someone being a fascist.

I think I started therapy in late 2020 after seeing the horrifying response to COVID from countries and corporations. The visible lack of global cooperation ruined my mental health. To me, this implied that if we can't work together to deal with a global pandemic, then what hope is there for the environment?

My therapist kept pushing me to use CBT as a way to cope with the issues I brought up. I ended up feeling more worthless because I didn't understand why I was failing at yet another thing.

I don't think I ever went deep into conversation with my therapist about climate change. There were so many external stresses clouding my mind that I was unable to stay on one topic long enough to do any meaningful management of my thoughts. Since everyone around me were so unconcerned about the environment, I sort of played along. All I really could understand at the time was that learning and trying CBT felt more like CBT. I hated it.

I was thinking of finding another therapist since it felt like I hit a wall with my current one. Fortunately, through random chance I happened to find a couple people who shared my views. Through them I've come to terms with my climate anxiety. Accepting a lot of uncomfortable truths. About me, about my relationships and about the future in general.

My mood these days ranges from indifference to frustration but I'm no longer in the depths of depression that I used to be in. I'm hoping to use my past experiences to help others who have yet to experience these thoughts and anxieties when the time comes. I want to help in some way because that's what I like doing and what I think will be useful. It's one of the many little things I use to motivate myself to get through the days.

I don't believe all raccoons live near roads. It is entirely possible for some animals to have minimal or no contact with human infrastructure. The world is a big place even if it feels small at times.

Country raccoons aren't aware of the dangers of motor vehicles. City raccoons would have been taught by their mother how to wait and avoid such obstacles. Foraging for food in bins is also a lot different than hunting for food in a more wild setting. The diets are vastly different with the mother again showing the young how to search and obtain food in their respective environments.

Yes, racoons can teach each other but from my understanding, a lot of that teaching is from mother to child.

I do not expect a city human to be able to head into the wild and survive without a considerable amount of training before heading out. A wild human would have a difficult time adjusting to the city life without starting out with some money.

I still stand by my original statement unless I can be proven otherwise.

I watched a documentary about racoons. It mainly focused on raccoons that live in the city and how they adapted to city life. City raccoons adapted so well that city racoons and country raccoons would not be able to survive in each other's world.

If I recall correctly, cities helped the spread of racoons throughout North America. Any animal that has is able to adapt so easily is far more clever than we give them credit for.

And since they aren't bound by human laws, I fully support them in vandalising and trashing these Cyber Truck monstrosities. I'm eternally jealous that they can look so cute while accidentally rebelling against Musk.

It's hard to tell from this angle but it's an older, much larger bunny. It hopped off behind the house and I was able as close as the hose was to the baby nearby.

I just pretended it wasn't there as I slowly coiled up the hose as I snuck by. I think I felt physical pain from how cute it was.