Enthusiastic sh.it.head

  • 10 Posts
  • 349 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 9th, 2023

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  • I just stopped talking to them or responding well to their efforts. It’s a trend. I really couldn’t even tell you why with any absolute certainty, aside from the following thought that’s come up when trying to figure it out.

    If you grow up in a situation where your parents move every couple of years for work, IMO you’re going to develop in one of two ways:
    -you’re going to get really good at making new friends, real fast, and keeping in touch with people over time
    -you’ll reach a point where you stop putting any effort into connecting with new people or keeping in touch with old friends, because what’s the point? You’ll be gone soon anyway.

    And if you’re in the latter camp, unless you put real effort into fixing it, that shit can stick with you long after the situation creating that condition is over.

    I’ve made some progress, I suppose, in trying to at least be a friendly guy on the street open to chance encounters that theoretically could turn into a more robust friendship, but I’ve got a ways to go to get where I’d like to be re: that.







  • So I like where you’re going with this, and it’s the kind of thing that’s been bubbling in my brain for a bit now, but question: I’ve been to a few soup kitchens in different areas of my own country. Never once have I witnessed or heard of anyone having to renounce anything to get served. You show up, you get fed - there’s Jesus freaks in the wings who may use the opportunity to try and convert you, sure, but if you walk away from them it doesn’t mean they take your plate.

    Do you have any specific examples you can point to where this isn’t the case? If nothing else, helps name and shame.


  • It’s normal, and frankly as old as the internet (any of y’all remember the term ‘flame wars’?). A lot of people here have made great points as to why it happens.

    My suggestion? Ignore the attacks, and speak to the content in as even a tone you can manage if you feel the topic is worth discussing. If it gets to a point where the meat of the discussion is lost in the attacks, disengage. Recreational discussion on the net doesn’t need to be a combat sport.

    The worst you’ll get with this approach is an accusation of ‘sea-lioning’, which makes some assumptions around intent you can’t really correct all that well if someone’s decided that’s what you’re doing. Though I welcome any suggestions - good faith is hard to prove online when people are so used to attack/counterattack discourse.






  • At the same time though, this kind of thing is the best sort of learning. Take your assumptions and make a theoretical model, go out and test it, and learn first hand what elements you didn’t account for.

    My opinion is that once your kids hit a certain age, your role is more support and providing guidance to avoid/recover from really bad outcomes (see: if your son’s plan had a flaw that would’ve left them stranded. They made it there and back, if exhausted and slightly [but from the sound of it not unrecoverably] poorer. Shitty, but they probably learned some valuble lessons.)

    Edit: This may just be copium from my own “I’m gonna move to the middle of a different province with my homies” adventure that left me with just enough cash for a bus ticket to supportive family if I survived on Corn Flakes for two weeks. Ah, to be 19 and know everything again…fuck that would suck.