RicOlie_2

Happy Thanksgiving, all you Americans!

Well, there goes all of history, I guess. 😉

(Not to mention knowing things like that your parents love you–I hope they do, anyway.)

Anakin Starkiller said:

I wish I had a faith, but alas, I cannot believe was isn’t in front of me.

Do you not believe in atoms then?

There are layers to reality that we can never experience directly. Quite a bit of the world is mysterious if you look at it from a certain perspective, even if a lot is known about it.

I feel you. I find the mysteries of my faith to some extent preserve that sense of mystery for me, but it’s still not the same as when the whole world seemed that way. That shift is one of the toughest parts of growing up, I think.

Really sorry to hear that…I’ll say some prayers.

Congrats! Glad the first date went well.

Anakin Starkiller said:

I don’t feel motivated or inspired to do anything.

That’s tough. I find that I tend to feel more motivated once I actually force myself to start something. Maybe try keeping a consistent sleep schedule and getting up early to work on learning something new, like a hobby or a language. Often, once you start doing something like that, you feel a sense of accomplishment that keeps you motivated to continue. Getting started can be tough though.

And if you don’t mind me saying this, for the sake of being fully honest about what I think part of your problem is, I truly believe we are all ultimately made for God, which means that we can never find complete fulfillment without Him. At least that’s my own experience and that of the people I know.

That’s frustrating. But you also have tough competition. People like Harmy have already made very good colour grades and people tend not to like the artificial bluish tint that wasn’t in the original. I feel for you though. It’s tough to put a lot of work into something and not have it appreciated.

Do you have nothing to do or do you just not feel like doing anything?

I was wondering what kind of monstrosity that was until I realized it wasn’t a full room.

Both the above comments strike me as very true.

And yes, it’s absurd to think Netflix is jumping on the “anti-trans” bandwagon. The kind of stuff they feature is usually outrageous in the other direction.

I think precisely because the line is thin, I tend to cut comedians more slack here. A lot of good humour is offensive to people with thin skin. But I can also accept that some humour is legitimately offensive and in poor taste. I have no investment in or real knowledge about Dave Chappelle, so I can’t make a judgement in his case.

To all y’all complaining about Dave Chappelle, keep in mind that humour usually involves making fun of people and it doesn’t make people anti-whatever-they’re-making-fun-of:

https://www.quora.com/What-s-the-deal-with-Dave-Chappelle-and-Netflix-recently

I share your sentiments, but for entirely different reasons…

Glad to hear it!

Likewise.

Limited phone space is always annoying. At this point, I think the OS takes up 75% of the space on my phone, leaving space for a few apps and some photos, and that gets filled up really quickly.

As a Canadian, I agree extra. We have to learn the Imperial system here entirely because of the Americans, which I suppose is useful, but it’s a bit annoying that entire industries have to operate on the Imperial system just because the American companies in the industry do.

I like having my music on a harddrive so that I can catalogue and rate it as I wish and organize it better overall. I mostly use streaming for finding new music. CDs or records would be a nightmare though–I have over 20,000 songs and that would be unmanageable in disc form. I try to buy music when I like it, but I must confess that most of my collection just comes from other people.

Well, tons of doctors also aren’t getting it, so I think both getting the vaccine and not getting it can be reasonable. The problem is that people’s choices often aren’t rationally based and they just make decisions off of soundbites… But I feel you. None of my grandparents are getting vaccinated, and I worry what will happen if they catch COVID…

Not anymore. They force updates now. You can delay them, but sometimes updates still catch you by surprise. Or, as happened last time I updated my laptop, I had to do updates again and reboot my computer immediately after I had just done so. It’s much better when there are weekly updates or something and I can just choose a time every week to do them semi-manually…

Ugh, Windows 10 updates are the worst. There should just be an option to only do updates by selected “update and shut down/restart” in the shut down menu, without ever having the computer shut down on its own.

Anakin Starkiller said:

There’s not really that much of a difference between American and Canadian society, although I would say American Christianity is more typically puritanical than Canadian Christianity, which is where I thought your assumptions were coming from.

I’m atheist. As far as I can tell most people here my age are non-religious.

I mean that people’s perception of religion is typically shaped by the religions that surround them, so your belief that I think sex is bad because I think porn is bad betrays a certain societal influence. It’s completely normal for you to think that, but it gets a bit tiring when you don’t fit into the binary options society presents you with.

Well, that’s likely because you’re not reading what I’m actually saying, so good for you.

There’s not really that much of a difference between American and Canadian society, although I would say American Christianity is more typically puritanical than Canadian Christianity, which is where I thought your assumptions were coming from. But that’s a big assumption on my part, because Canadians often have the same perceptions. The idea that there is a black and white binary between thinking sex is dirty and thinking porn is great is unfortunate. It leads to a lot of misunderstanding.

BTW, I’m not attacking your freedom to do porn. We live in free countries. You can do what you’d like. But if you complain about people stigmatizing it, be aware that people who think that porn devalues and cheapens sex by divorcing it from love and relationship are going to speak up. I think the stigma is fully justified (and I don’t really think there’s much of a stigma anyway in most of society; certainly not in my generation).

fmalover said:

RicOlie_2 said:

fmalover said:

So what are you suggesting? That we abolish the sex industry altogether?

Practically speaking? No. Ideally speaking? Yes. It might be possible to eliminate trafficking without putting a stop to the industry, but I think there is something inherently wrong about objectifying human beings.

I don’t think I am objectifying anyone when porn is made for the explicit purpose of my arousal. I fully understand they are people, and if I were to encounter them in person I would simply say hello and be polite.

As for those who made a conscious decision to be pornstars and seem to genuinely enjoy their jobs, do you think they are somehow mentally damaged? Take Angela White for example. She chose the profession and genuinely loves it, or Nina Hartley, who’s been in the business since the 1980s and shows no signs of slowing down.

Your position makes sense to me, but I don’t think I fully agree with it. We may see objectification differently, but I would say that deriving sexual pleasure from someone outside of a relationship with that person inherently involves objectifying them, even if you are not seeing them as mere objects.

I don’t think pornstars are mentally damaged. I think there certainly are people who like performing sex for others. I’m just not convinced that it’s healthy for society to see sex as entertainment, divorced from any kind of personal relationship.