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Religious faith has a demonstrated psychological benefits for humans. I don't know exactly how to compare the amount of good it does to the amount of harm, but it's definitely something our brains seem to want.

I'm not insulted. I know what was meant.

Yes, revisionist truth patterns concern me as being a little more serious than poor self-esteem issues.

Yeah, in your case it sounds like he did these things and was also a dick, which is a very important distinction

  sounds like a sad duck call in my head.  "HWWWWaaaah"

Of course not.
Your bf is exhibiting a symptom though. Which isn't a diagnosis but it's a pain in the ass, I lived with somebody who revied everything.

There are lots of things that can cause that particular symptom. We've already got a good handle on the things that are wrong with our brains, and it's kind of insulting to drop the "narcissist" diagnosis, even as a possibility, on someone you know nothing about.

I try to keep in mind how easy it is for people to re-write or screw up their own memories without realizing it. The Boyfriend has an awesome story about a wedding he went to, and literally not one part of it actually happened the way he remembers.*  Also, I happen to have the kind of shitty memory where I can say something to someone and be asked immediately afterwards what I just said and have no fucking clue. So I guess maybe I'm more forgiving than I ought to be just from being fucked up myself.



*But it's an awesome story, and the groom in question has agreed that it's far more entertaining to tell it that way

That's symptomatic of a disorder.
http://www.halcyon.com/jmashmun/npd/traits.html

"The most telling thing that narcissists do is contradict themselves. They will do this virtually in the same sentence, without even stopping to take a breath. It can be trivial (e.g., about what they want for lunch) or it can be serious (e.g., about whether or not they love you). When you ask them which one they mean, they'll deny ever saying the first one, though it may literally have been only seconds since they said it -- really, how could you think they'd ever have said that? You need to have your head examined! They will contradict FACTS. They will lie to you about things that you did together. They will misquote you to yourself. If you disagree with them, they'll say you're lying, making stuff up, or are crazy. "

I'm hoping you didn't just internet diagnose me with anything.

I try to keep in mind how easy it is for people to re-write or screw up their own memories without realizing it. The Boyfriend has an awesome story about a wedding he went to, and literally not one part of it actually happened the way he remembers.*  Also, I happen to have the kind of shitty memory where I can say something to someone and be asked immediately afterwards what I just said and have no fucking clue. So I guess maybe I'm more forgiving than I ought to be just from being fucked up myself.



*But it's an awesome story, and the groom in question has agreed that it's far more entertaining to tell it that way

When it get's resolved with a hearty laugh all the way around, that's one thing. When it gets a rage reaction because "HOW DARE YOU FUCKING CALL ME A LIAR, YOU'RE THE LIAR!" you can be sure it's something else.

Have you ever been called out on a lie that you really believed wasn't one? Or had to sit there and think for a full minute and still have no ability to remember anything about the conversation that you just had? It's awful and terrifying, and I would not be surprised if some people's immediate reaction is anger and denial. If they can't come to grips with it over a longer period (as opposed to the kneejerk "DON'T CALL ME A LIAR YOU LIAR"), then it's obviously either a case of willful deception or actual mental illness.

I try to keep in mind how easy it is for people to re-write or screw up their own memories without realizing it. The Boyfriend has an awesome story about a wedding he went to, and literally not one part of it actually happened the way he remembers.*  Also, I happen to have the kind of shitty memory where I can say something to someone and be asked immediately afterwards what I just said and have no fucking clue. So I guess maybe I'm more forgiving than I ought to be just from being fucked up myself.



*But it's an awesome story, and the groom in question has agreed that it's far more entertaining to tell it that way

I couldn't find the poop thread, but this is for you <3

http://www.cracked.com/article_19720_6-mind-blowing-ways-poop-created-modern-world.html

What if we fedex her instead?

I always love your rants/essays, but the lack of punctuation leaves me feeling like I must have missed something along the way, or that I wasn't reading it right. I assume it's all intentional?

Cain posts are hard to digest first thing in the morning.

Stuff that's acceptable between friends or in a single community can be wildly different from the norm.

NO JAIL TIME FOR ANYONE! 

Proud mommy story:

Supergirl has crazy awesome hair. It is made of dandelions or something, it poofs naturally. So, she gets really spectacular effects from static. Over dinner one night I asked if she remembered what causes static, and she said no, so we got out a sheet of paper and drew out the bohr model again and discussed how sometimes electrons go flying off and the atom isn't "happy" until it can steal one back and rebalance itself. (I believe anthropomorphizing* forces is totally age-appropriate at 6.) She felt somewhat comfortable with that notion, but asked a question that made it clear that she was conflating cells with atoms, so I drew out a person, a cell, a molecule (DNA), and an atom. Obviously, there's no good way to communicate the orders of magnitude at that age, but she now had the hierarchical structure down. We also talked about the particles that make up an atom, the protons and neutrons in the nucleus and the electrons in their orbits.

So she looks up at me and goes "what makes up a particle?"
And I tell her "Quarks, but they're really complicated."
"What makes them complicated?"
So, out comes the laptop and we spend about twenty minutes looking at Wikipedia articles about spin and charm and up and color before she turns to me and says "Mommy, quarks are complicated!"

*Further evidence to this point: after discussing what anthropomorphizing means, I asked her if she was aware of any times that she may have done it. She said no, but a couple days later was very excited to inform me that one of her classmates had anthropomorphized the computer by saying it didn't like him.

Anyone know how we go about convincing them to do an audiobook copy? I know a picky reader who could really use this one.