Get used to hearing the “pull funding” threat, it’s how they’re going to start chipping away at minority rights (LGBTQ+, women, Latino, Black, etc).

Have your three branches of government pass an act tying a state-decision to federal funding ala the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984, and we’re going to see state’s comply.

I believe ACAB, and my cousin is actively trying to become a state trooper.

Doesn’t mean I walk up and spit in his face at every family gathering. We talk, we grew up together, we shoot the shit and have a good time.

But if he asked me to condone or celebrate his job? Nah, he knows how I feel about the police and their profession, as long as he’s safe and not drinking the Kool aid (he will) that’s all I can hope. And that maybe he’ll open his eyes someday. 🤷‍♀️

As a hard rule, though, I won’t date cops or mess around with them. One reached out on a dating app recently and I just politely responded with “I’m not interested in law enforcement, sorry” to which I got “Uh, I’m actually a correctional officer.”

Cool, so you abuse people after the police have finished abusing them, that’s not the brag you think it is.

He will.

Damn, you’re right, I misremembered!

Welp, I still think it deserved one more, haha.

Galavant, it was a show that only lasted a season, two seasons, but was just kind of a medieval-era musical drama/comedy that didn’t take itself too seriously.

The songs were catchy, the characters were a little corny but grew on you, and the actors could sing fairly well. But, it only got one season and ended on a cliffhanger, so we’ll never know what could have been I think it deserved one more season to bring some closure to some things. :/

🎶Way back in days of old, there was a legend told, about a hero known as Galavant🎶

Edit: another user pointed out a few things I was wrong about, edited to correct.

But Biden can’t lie once. Got it.

I mean… He ran in 2020 saying he would only be a one-term President…

And then him and his staff hid his cognitive decline well past the start of the primaries…

He also said there’d be consequences for Israel if they didn’t start allowing aid into Gaza…

So that’s four lies, counting his backtrack on pardoning his son.

The problem is Biden helped create the legal system he’s now shielding his son from. The same legal system that put thousands upon thousands of sons and daughters behind bars.

And with the recent attention police conduct has gotten (and all the footage we see of officers abusing/torturing/beating/killing those being arrested), how many of those kids never made it to the courtroom because of ol’ Joe “Maybe Cops Can Just Shoot-em in the Leg” Biden and the militarized police force he helped create?

You’re right, Republicans are corrupt to the core, they’re pieces of shit, and they have and will do things that are worse than this. But that doesn’t excuse the fact that this only benefits the Biden family, and is corruption, full stop. I understand why he did it, and I’ve gone back and forth on whether I’d do the same in his shoes (which probably means I would)…

But he deserves to be criticized for it, as I would be, because it’s blatant corruption, and just reinforces the notion amongst non-voters that both parties are the same, they only care about protecting and enriching their own, and us plebs can just go fuck ourselves.

And actions like this are exactly why people say “both parties,” because they prove it.

USPS will never text you unless you have your account set up that way. My mom sends me these texts asking if they’re legit, and I always ask, “Did you order something?” No. “Well, then why would you have a delayed package?”

Again, USPS will not text you like this, and they use a .gov domain.

Still waiting for my apology.

Ok drag, yep, you’re right.

Still waiting for my apology.

Ah, I misread that, fair point. 👍

Called it.

Oh, I’m sorry, drag is right, drag didn’t call me a Trump supporter, drag only called me a Nazi. Though, I distinctly remember you telling me I wanted you and all of your friends dead, but you aren’t worth any more time looking because you’ll use whatever mental gymnastics you need to to continue to feel that you’re right about everything.

The rest of your comment is meaningless, drag, I didn’t purposefully misgender you, and I thought I corrected it before you saw via an edit. It wasn’t malicious, and if it was, why would I be referring to you as drag in every other instance I refer to you?

Utterly meaningless, much like what you provide to literally every discussion you’ve been involved in. I clearly laid out my reasoning behind why Buddhism is a spiritual practice as opposed to a religion, including the fact that, by definition, religion requires the worship of a superhuman ability, primarily through a God or God’s, which Buddhism does not have, as I pointed out in my first comment.

I like how you are throwing a temper tantrum because I accidentally misgendered you in one comment out of the dozens you and I have exchanged, yet I already know you’re not going to apologize for unjustly calling me a Nazi because that’s somehow justified in your empty head.

You are a child, drag, and you need to get over yourself. I wasn’t insulting Buddhism, I was trying to show you how it doesn’t meet the definition of a religion. And in turn, you’re now defending atheism, or attacking atheism, (you’re writing makes zero sense), and I never claimed that Buddhism is perfect. It’s not an organized religion, it’s just not, idk why you’re doubling down on this when you are just wrong.

And for the record, I am an atheist, you insufferable bag of hot air, and your comment doesn’t lend you the credibility you think it does. Nor did I ever claim to be a good person.

I’m done, drag, any time I see you from now on will only be to demand my apology, with a link to the screenshot for all of Lemmy to see what an insufferable, miserable child Drag really is.

For the insufferable child who can’t admit they’re wrong:

https://lemmy.world/comment/13732345

I already did.

I’m still waiting for you to apologize for calling me a fascist Nazi Trump supporter who wants you and all of your friends dead, but I guess that would involve you admitting you were wrong about anything, and I know that’s impossible for someone like drag.

Edit: I’m waiting…

Y know what, fuck it, I’m so sick of this. I’m actually attempting to defend you and Buddhism here, and I’m getting this nonsense pedantic questioning.

You’re right, Buddhism is a religion, and it’s a shit poison just like every other religion, and you’ve proved that. Hurray for Drag, once again proving drag’s superior intellect over everyone on Lemmy.

Edit: Absolutely insufferable, and to think I was defending your pronouns in another thread too, despite you being an insufferable tool.

Edit 2: I’d link the whole write up, but you’d probably start pedantically arguing against my point because you’re just the smartest fucking person in the world.

In Wagner’s estimation, it takes 13 milliseconds for the brain to process information from the eye, a hundred milliseconds to feel pain. But 13 milliseconds into the implosion, there is nothing left intact of the cylindrical section of the Titan.

“They would have been dead ten milliseconds ago,” says Wagner. “They wouldn’t really feel anything or see anything coming. They would just be instantly dead

Source

I’m claiming Buddhism isn’t a religion at all, it’s a spiritual practice.

It’s a spiritual practice, an ideology or philosophy, there’s no centralized Buddhist religion with an unelected figurehead dictating your “religion.” You can buy a pillow and watch some YouTube videos on Buddhist practices, and you’re a Buddhist so long as you follow the ideology and practices. There’s no weekly check-ins at the church, no needing to pass certain coming-of-age rights, no baptisms or indoctrination ceremonies, no pressure to convert those around you.

But I wouldn’t call you religious, I’d call you spiritual. You’re attempting to gain an enlightened and spiritual connection with the world/universe around you. You’re not trying to appease a God in the hopes you’ll be granted an eternal afterlife, and following every single religious rule/practice is the only way to ensure that.

Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six. To me, it’s solid advice (so long as the individual can own a firearm responsibly, which is an individual decision) for individuals of minority groups to arm themselves.

The majority of situations will be like the other commenter said: arm yourself to protect yourself against groups looking to do you harm. It won’t surprise me to hear about groups of bigots rolling up on LGBTQ+ clubs and following people home to attack/assault/kill them, or if we see more Pulse Nightclub shooting events.

Remember, Reagan pushed for gun control as the Gov of California only after the Black Panthers started carrying weapons to their rallies. Yeah, push comes to shove, the police/government have way bigger and better weapons than the average American.

But that was true back then too, and it still scared the government enough to pass firearm restrictions. Peaceful protests can remain a lot more peaceful when the police know the other side is packing too. (I say CAN because obviously once weapons are introduced to any situation, violence is introduced as a potential consequence)

No one wants to be the first one shot, even if you’ve got a tank/machine gun behind you as backup.

I’ve always heard Buddhism referred to more as a spiritual practice than a religious one. Buddhism has no “deity,” the Buddha would not have condoned the worship of himself as a God. Buddhism’s whole thing deals with karma and the path the self enlightenment, which is the key difference between Buddhism (and other spiritual “religions”): spirituality is self contained, religion isn’t.

Per most actual religions, you need to worship in certain places, listening to certain people, and many religions encourage the conversion of those outside of the religion (sometimes by force). The community aspect is a requirement of the religion, it’s not considered “kosher” to just do it all by yourself in your house.

And thus, these religions tend to be organized: they have a hierarchy, a power structure, hell, some ever have their own governments/countries. They protect their own, shielding them from the law despite their pedophilic transgressions (cough cough Catholicism), they require tithes or their patrons but rarely offer financial assistance to their own parishes.

Buddhism can be practiced in groups (monks and monasteries), but those groups are not forcefully trying to convert outsiders (though they may welcome them), and they aren’t necessary. You can practice Buddhism entirely on your own and still be faithfully practicing all of the tenets of the “religion,” despite never interacting with any type of significant religious figures.

I’ve never met a Buddhist who sat down next to me at dinner and started asking when I’m going to accept Buddha and start going to meditation and find my inner chakra and give up all of my possessions for the pursuit of pure enlightenment, or tell me I’m going to reincarnate as a disfigured creature because I’m trans.

I have been told by various folks of various Abrahamic-Religion flavors that I’m going to hell for being trans, need to repent/kill myself, been asked when I’m going back to church, how I can turn my back on my creator, told religion will fix my depression/mental issues, and so on.

And the fact that the majority of religions rely on the indoctrination of children for their member base to remain consistent/strong enough, rather than allowing people to find their teachings and accept/deny them for themselves when they can consent as adults, should tell you most religions are more akin to cults than anything actually beneficial to society.

I used to be a mail carrier, so I’ve got a few stories I could share.

There was the 95 year old retired Army vet who would give me a bottle of wine as a tip at Christmas. The first time I met him, he was writing his name on the top of his mailbox in sharpie, and when I asked why, he said, “Because the doofus you have delivering our mail keeps mixing up the boxes,” to which I responded, “Well, as that doofus, I apologize, I just started” and he started laughing and apologizing. He’d greet me from the porch every day with his mug of wine and a hearty “Oh boy, here comes trouble!”

There was the house that refused to empty their mailbox of mail, they’d only take packages. I took all their mail from their full box like 3 times over the course of six months, making them come pick it all up, and they kept doing it. So, one day, I had two small packages, and their mailbox was 3/4 full. I knew if I just threw the packages in there, the packages would be grabbed and the box would be full of mail the following week.

So, I pulled all the mail out, put the packages in the very back, and put all the mail back on top of it. She called the supervisor at the post office saying they weren’t on her back porch, he told her the packages were scanned delivered and they should be there, check the mailbox. She called him back and said the mailbox was empty. He told her he’d contact me and figure out what happened.

He called me, and asked where the woman’s packages were. I told him this was the house that wouldn’t empty their mailbox, so, I put them under all of her mail to try to force them to take their mail. He laughed and told me when I got back later that she had called back and said she still couldn’t find them despite “looking in the mailbox,” and he simply told her to empty it and she’d likely find them.

Had a house that kept leaving their dog off leash, and it would run up and bark at me while I was walking around their neighborhood. Per USPS policy, if a dog is outside and loose without any kind of fence/leash/etc, then the neighborhood doesn’t get mail that day. I told the kids they needed to keep the dog inside, I told the mother, I told their neighbors, and I was working the issue with my postmaster. The PM called them twice and sent them a letter telling them the dog is either inside when I pull up, or we’re not delivering anymore.

Well, I got one house past the dog’s house, and it came sprinting out the front door, barking and running for me. I’d had enough, and I snapped. I stomped, stood my ground, and shouted at this dog and it just stopped and started running back. Their son was in the yard, and (I feel bad in hindsight about it) I kinda yelled at the kid, telling him that damn dog was supposed to be in the house, their parents knew this, and they were lucky I didn’t dog-spray the little shit (the dog, not the kid). Whole time the kid is frozen, a yard away, just staring at me.

I continue walking my loop, still irate, when I see this guy starting to walk towards me, asking me why I was yelling at his son. I turned and asked why, after all of the warnings and requests they’d gotten, they couldn’t keep their fucking dog inside for 15 minutes a day when I’m here. He followed me on my loop, kept asking me to stop and talk to him, as we’re shouting at each other all across his neighbor’s lawns. I just kept telling him I had nothing to discuss with him since him and his family clearly couldn’t listen, and I strongly encouraged him to call the post office.

So he asked for my name, and I told him “Dave, no need to write it down, I’ll be letting my postmaster know you and I spoke,” and left. When I got back to the office at the end of the day, I was pulled into the office and handed a stack of letters from my postmaster. “You’re to deliver all of these to that neighborhood tomorrow, this is the 4th instance of that dog being loose, the whole neighborhood is going to the curb.” (This means moving the mailboxes from the house to the road) Well, the neighbors absolutely lost their shit that they were being forced to move their mailboxes because of their irresponsible neighbor, even asking me about it as I would go through the neighborhood.

To end on a slightly lighter note: the reason I told the guy my name was “Dave” was because it was the unofficial response for our office. We had a carrier named Dave that was kinda the office punching bag (he took it well and gave it right back). The old timers told me that years ago, one of the carriers Scott (I think) got into with a woman on his route. Like, in each other’s faces, shouting, cussing, etc, it was heated. Well, when the woman asked for Scott’s name, he said, “Dave!”

Dave got back to the office that day, and the PM is laying into him about how he was speaking to this customer. He’s shouting back at her that he has no idea what she’s talking about, and she keeps insisting the woman said the carrier’s name was Dave. She checked the address, and it wasn’t on Dave’s route, so then she started yelling at him about why he was so far from his route (this was before the GPS-enabled scanners). All the while, Scott is laughing his ass off in the break room listening to all of it until they realized and started yelling at him, haha.

Last one (again, not my story, but another from an old timer): Back in the 80s/90s, the post office was a different beast: no GPS tracking, no cell phones, if management wanted to observe you work outside the office, they had to either find you or ride along with you. Because of that, carriers used to do all kinds of stuff back in the day that you can’t now (like everyone finishing their routes by 11 am, and then all going to the bar until 3 before heading back to the office).

Well, this one carrier had one of the “rough” routes in his city, but he was always treated well because he brought the government checks every month. Well, his customers knew when their checks arrived every month, so on that day, he’d park at a bar at the end of this long street, and just drink his beer while the customers came through and got their checks. When everyone from that end of the road had come through, he’d drive to the bar at the opposite end of the road and repeat, since everyone had just watched him drive by. And they’d all cycle through, all while he sat on a stool, drinking his beer, and making his bread for the day.