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I will miss him. I don't know what to say other than I loved his thick accent. What did him in anyway?

Oh fuck... He will be missed.

Shit, which James Bond? Did he get lazered from crotch to face? If not Howl hasn't been doing his job. Sorry, respect for the dead, which one?

EDIT: Apparently live and let die didn't work out.

But no, I don't sea-lion, that's where you're actually %100 wrong. There's no bad faith here. I do read, I do listen, I do carefully consider. I won't lick your butthole but I will hear what you have to say and spend a while digesting it. It won't be immediate, sadly. It will be something I stew on and consider from multiple angles, something I test out, something I keep at the back of my mind during all interactions, before it eventually sinks in. Rome wasn't built in a day, but evidence suggests it can burn in one.

As far as arguing with the woman who was giving bad advice:

I have psychological problems, so I have experience with those wtf moments when shit goes upside down. She does too apparently. Being disenchanted with the history of psychiatry is completely understandable, given my own experiences. That said, I believe in the current state of psychiatry, I trust my psychiatrist and I take my pills everyday, and I've expressed before that I think it's irresponsible not to. I've heard horror stories though, and I can't blame everyone for not being immediately on-board with every aspect of psychiatry and sometimes looking for solutions outside the box. I recognize how dangerous that is and that in an ideal world, we'd all just trust our doctors and give it a try, that said, the abuses of the past are still fresh in memory and not at all distant from us. It sucks that trust has been damaged so much, but I respect why it has. Almost every one of my posts was stressing the importance of trusting your doctor, but it's really hard sometimes and I can show respect for someone who doesn't trust the experts without being a "simp", a simp is someone who expects something in return and is such a tired word, like the right wing throwing the word "cuck" around. I said many times that things aren't like they once were and to trust the people who went to school for a long time to know what the actual fuck they're talking about.

RWHN: Didn't know I'd been defending him, but based on what I've read it's very wrong. Was likely a knee-jerk response to seeing everyone relentlessly shit on anyone with a slightly different opinion, but in his case he deserves no respect or patience, I can see why that would upset someone and didn't realize I'd done that. The point is taken and that sometimes I need to shut up and just let the adults handle things when issues like that crop up. There's really not a good excuse for coming to the defense of someone like that, so I'll admit that was one of many serious fuckups on my part.

Altered: Didn't mean to pester Altered. I like Altered's posts, even though some of them are especially venomous. I mean it when I say I wish the best for Altered and I get worried when Altered doesn't post for a while. Sure Altered spammed my email account with some weird spam-mail, and when that happened it hit me that she was really upset and that she might step it up a notch if I upset her further, I chose to remove myself from the equation for then because I have people and situations I deeply care about and someone's grudge over the internet was not something I wanted to feed into. That's not the hill I wanted to die on, in other words.

Doctor Howl: Of all the things I regret, one of the ones I regret the most is antagonizing Howl. Howl has posts of substance and I enjoy reading them. The Billy thread is one of the major things that keeps me coming back and reading. I may not always agree with his thoughts or manner of communication, but I read his posts because I like the way he expresses himself. There's really no excuse for me antagonizing Howl in the past, beyond some childish shit like "He started it!" when really he didn't and I deserved the shit I got from him.

In all, I can see how I've shat the bed, and hoping people will graciously sweep it under the rug yet again is asking a bit much... hell, when I started posting here a decade ago I was a shit-eating Libertarian tool, I've grown since then, in no small part thanks to the pushback I experienced here. I find myself wondering if I'd have the same views if I hadn't stuck my toe in the waters and experienced the bubbly swarming of pirhanas. But as has been pointed out to me, there are people who simply take, and then there are people who give back. I must admit I have no idea how to give back in such a community. Not exactly equipped well enough intellectually to do much other than crack a few jokes hopefully people don't take the wrong way.

I appreciate your responses, Johnny. I know you likely didn't want a few paragraphs of mind-vomit but that's the only way I know how to express my thoughts. I'll work on that as things progress.

Nevermind, obviously that was satire and I was trying to play into the joke. Can you point out how I'm hostile? I'd like to know because I don't see it from here, but that doesn't mean I don't react in a hostile fashion, like, previously, ugh.

I'll hostility your vacuum collapse. You didn't think about me or anyone else, just that sweet, sweet payoff.

Point taken, I will seriously consider this. I can kind of see where you're coming from so already partway to giving it some serious thought.

I see. I'll likely have to read that a few dozen times to make sure I understand what's being communicated, but regardless, it wasn't my intent to be irritating (at least, not there, it usually isn't save every now and then). I suppose some things just come naturally for me. Point taken that nobody wants a slice of life or certain explanations. In hindsight most, if not everyone here understands those concepts, probably better than I do. I'll try to keep that in mind before making any more posts, though I may slip at times.

My father though, my earliest memories were of him giving me a beer and yelling at the TV "Run "n-word" run!" as we watched NFL. He was due for a humbling. While he never lived in a big city, over the course of his life he slowly realized the error of his ways, but, you know, fourty years of life passes in the blink of an eye and by the time he passed away he was a hardcore socialist, anti-racist and supporter of legal marijuana, which, he had been a probation officer in a small Texas town and had a reputation as the worst one to get assigned to.

It's hard to carry the weight of sin that my father carried, he eventually knew it was wrong. Watching him grow as I grew was, well, I guess a sign to me that we don't stop growing until we're dead. He wasn't a great role model, he wasn't even a good one, but he was a human being who would eventually realize they fucked up, and instead of trying to hide it, would own up to it and strive to be better. I hated him when I was a kid, but I respect him now because it takes a lot to just turn your back on doubling down on being right, instead smearing shame on your face for the sake of being actually right.

Wait, why does he/she get ignored and not me? Nevermind, maybe I don't want the answer. I mean, an echo chamber is boring and not the slightest bit enlightening or enabling of discussion. Bovine has only 20 posts, I haven't studied their other posts, so I can't attest to their quality or lack of quality, maybe it's simply that you don't want a one word response?

Eh, whatever, I, kinda-sorta agree with your quoted statement, The Johnny. but I agree in that some of these things are fixed points in the human condition, like tribalistic thinking, us vs. them thinking, shun the other sort of thing. This happens enough over the course of history, and assuming the pattern holds, prehistory, to be an established, instinctual manner of problem-solving. Instincts aren't always right, especially not right when you have millions of people packed into concrete structures like sardines. City folk have adapted to diversity, people with miles between neighbors may lag behind.

The irony being that part of Trump's treatment plan for Covid-19 was based on research using baby parts... or so I recall reading. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

This also explains Kentucky weddings.

Which also explains sister-cousins.

I'm sure the media is just blowing this out of proportion like Russia, Ukraine, Covid-19, all just to make Trump look bad. Those bus drivers were appointed by Obama, bam, mystery solved. Let's get Barr on this.

EDIT: I should probably add that I'm being sarcastic by channeling the Trumpanzee mindset. I honestly wouldn't be too surprised to see such on Faux.

Well, I keep thinking about what I've read about cults, and it's not necessarily the dumb and/or ignorant who get wrapped up in that manner of thinking. Some educated people have been sucked in by cult mentalities and encouraged to alienate friends and family until the cult is all they have left. After this alienation, if I recall correctly, pride can keep them from admitting they were in the wrong (after all, who wants to face that kind of shame?), as well as fear, what if they beg forgiveness and are rejected? Then they have nothing, no cult, no friends, no family.

Of course, I'm starting from the cult perspective, that's really the only thing that can explain my mom and stepdad being wrapped up in that dumb shit to me. Maybe they've just been dumbass monster truck fans their whole lives and I never realized it, somehow.