My answer too.

And also for the benefit of anyone who’s just played the base game: the DLC is basically a sequel, and I found it even more impactful than the base game!

yep, that’s more accurate ty!

that’s definitely part of it, but sex hormones interact with* neurotransmitters and the mental/emotional stuff tends to hit first, before any physical effects take place.

Yep absolutely!

For me, it felt like my life was quickly progressing away from a youth I was not ready to leave for inexplicable reasons. In the end I ended up taking a nuclear option once I realized how uncomfortable I was with my future, and while it’s not been easy it’s been absolutely worth it.

Even though you may be stuck in the same habits and mistakes, they can be rewritten and you’ll be surprised how quickly life changes once you find what makes you authentically happy. A lot can happen in 3 years and I guarantee you’ll still be young at 24. You can still be young at twice that. There’s a lot of life ahead of you, especially once you take calculated risks to improve your future and make the most of the youth you still have. You may not know what exactly will make you happy, but trust in yourself and your judgement to find it as you go.

Wasn’t really allowed to harbor or express anger as a kid. Now I can’t summon an ounce of rage, even when it’s appropriate and helpful. It’s not ideal, so I spend a lot of time meditating, dropping away other emotions in hopes of finding a spark of something in there. Nothing yet, but I’ve found a number of other useful things in the process.

Mindfulness is a great skill to build to debug issues like this. It’s slow, painful sometimes, and doesn’t always feel worthwhile, but it’s definitely worth taking the time to try meditating to get closer to your base emotions and how they appear.

Worth remembering too that what you’re looking for probably isn’t a huge shift in thinking, at least in the short term. Incremental progress over time is all it takes. Some people are shades of tightly wound and that’s okay. You’re who you are for a reason and it’s worth being kind to yourself when unhelpful thoughts appear. Not to excuse yourself of behavior you don’t want to maintain, but to care for and guide yourself toward a simple step in the right direction.

Outer Wilds, to my estranged family. I think they could use a new religion and that game’s probably a better place to start.

Naw, it’s just the healthiest way I’ve found to approach people online. Lead with earnestness and a desire to understand, don’t sweat it when people shut you out - helps with finding the good folks in a hostile world. If you’re so truly indifferent, why respond in the first place?

Very cute of you, but I’ve got bigger worries than whether or not internet strangers care about my opinion. Enjoy your bubble.

You obviously have the right to like or dislike whatever suits you. But tolerance is a requirement for society to function. Our likes and dislikes come from individual perspective, and no one individual can see the whole picture. Tolerance is a way of accounting for that on an individual level by broadening the bounds of what we deem acceptable by some amount, which allows us to cooperate in a broader, complex society. Generally all this means is lending people the benefit of the doubt if they’re not actively harming someone.

It’s hard to know what exactly pisses you off about this, because you haven’t mentioned specifics about what controversial opinions you have, only that you have a right to have them. And fair’s fair, some people would take some opinions away from you on social media platforms, or enact harsh penalties for holding hateful beliefs, and I am not really down with that. I’m optimistic about people and do my best to come at these things with respect, and believe in people’s ability to learn and grow. I’m wrong and learn things all the time, it’s a good thing!

But man, I gotta say that grace is difficult to offer sometimes. I’m trans, and you’d be surprised how quickly “basic human decency” fades as soon as that comes up sometimes. One example of too fucking many: when I came out, my folks disowned me on the spot. They framed much of it in more or less the same rhetoric you use here - personal truth > your feelings, don’t bring it up if you don’t want my opinion, I can’t match other people’s values, “tolerant” people are actually the intolerant ones, etc. Between the accusations of autogynephilia and furious bloviating about the sanctity of their opinions, there was no room to just honestly talk - and so therefore, nobody learned anything.

This line of thinking shuts down opposition by dominating the discussion with your opinions and feelings and crying foul when people feel the need to engage you about it. Unfortunately, this presents a brick wall that not only seals yourself from critique, but also seals yourself from having your views challenged and learning more about the world. It’s good for no one and only serves to weaken the social fabric of society.

There is the unregulated gambling market running off Counterstrike and Dota etc items that valve technically doesn’t run, but does facilitate through its community market and does profit from. Probably the biggest problem I have with how the company operates.

That being said, generally I do agree.

different flavors of weird for sure. Depends on which type you’re more comfortable around.

Well said. We’d be so much better off if people generally had a better understanding of ©PTSD. Everyone has a responsibility for how they act, but maladaptation is a hell of a thing and takes lots of time to address, especially when people know these triggers and weaponize them because they want to see you hurt.

Yeah, I think that’s pretty much all that is generally needed. I’ve had people assume but ask me first, just asking “she/her?” as a question, I respond yes, we go about our business. If you don’t want to assume, you can also pretty much universally use they/them in passing, or if it’s someone you interact with more frequently, people really don’t tend to mind if you ask.

I mean I’m trans, I get around quite a bit in queer spaces, I haven’t met anyone who would get super mad about initially assuming pronouns rather than just saying “hey I prefer XYZ” and moving on. Generally when people react strongly to being misgendered, it’s due to ongoing conflict over their identities, having to deal with people who use pronouns to casually disregard your Identity, familial abandonment, etc. It is often a response to complex trauma from elsewhere. That’s not really your responsibility, but I’ve been there and if you can offer them any grace in those moments, it’s extremely helpful.

Personally, it’s nbd when people slip up - especially people who’ve known me for a very long time pre-transition. Oftentimes they correct themselves, and I usually feel worse that they feel bad about it. It’s pretty easy to tell when it’s intentional or not, and I reserve my ire for people who clearly mean disrespect.

Though, I should say, that’s now - early on in transition, it was certainly a bit harder to take. It reminded me of very fresh family abandonment and abuse over my identity. That’s not on the people who accidentally called me by the wrong pronoun, but it certainly could put me in a pretty bad place and I’m sure I wasn’t the friendliest in those moments. The more that trans folks are supported by their friends and family, the more secure they feel and the less likely they are to react strongly to being accidentally misgendered, imo.

the singular use is so old, when it was first introduced, “they” was still spelled with a fucking thorn!

Borderlands?

I heard there’s a holy yellow sky / Just make sure you close your eyes

I love spicier ginger beers and sarsaparilla, they’re so much less sweet and have a lot more flavor

👉👈