That I hate television and actually enjoy working. Jobs suck, “work” sucks, but getting things done around the house or finishing a project or even just getting into a flow on a task is rewarding. 10 year old me would ask, “What happened to us?!” But I guess I enjoyed it then, too. I just defined it differently. Building with Lego for hours in my room, being creative. I didn’t define that as work until my adult hobbies expanded into making things with my hands and I had real world job experience.

Bravo!

Although it’s been sporadic for him as he is no professional, my dad has always sculpted as his creative outlet. His best work being from the time period after we lost my mom. His chosen medium are various woods, but when I had an interest myself, he would show me carving techniques in soap bars and create initial sculpture(s) in clay before attempting to remove material on the final workpiece. I only made a couple things in wood, but I got more into charcoal drawing and music and didn’t explore the third dimension much more (until I got into modeling on the computer for practical/machining purposes). I imagine CAD design and 3d modeling programs likely had an impact on the interest in physical sculpture in general.

Yeah, young folks are moving away because they’ve been indoctrinated in liberal college institutions and lured by a gay communist urban agenda to destroy rural America and bring about the decline of Christian conservative values! Nothing at all to do with capital consolidation and market monopolization resulting in reductions of diversified local markets and diminished job prospects! Increased cultural exposure due to accessing instantaneous global communications and social media? No way that has any influence in the decisions people make about what cultural environment they’d prefer to raise their children in. SmallTown USA is the best place to escape all the scary ideas that exist in the world, like equality among gender and race, and socializing the excesses of the private. Who would want to live in that kind of world?!

Now you have to make a giant guitar for him too.

It was similar in my school, I mean aside from objective textbooks like in science or history. Apart from a couple stories, I’ve never really enjoyed reading fiction, and as a result, I struggled in school as that was the focus for gauging reading comprehension and other metrics.

Where I lacked in desire to read fiction, I was obsessed with poring through the encyclopedias we had at home. I would read ahead in history and math and science. I had no problems grasping the material and applying what I’d learned. In many ways, I feel this was not recognized by teachers and that the education system failed me in this regard.

I love reading to learn about the world, and I understand fiction can provide insight into other people’s perspectives, but it is still difficult for me to engage with fiction. It just doesn’t interest me the same way.

This isn’t to say we should change how we impart the joy of reading to kids. I’m not sure how I’d deal with my case, even if I could go back in time. There’s a good fiction plot somewhere in here, I guess. “Man goes back in time to spark new interest in himself to read fiction, ultimately fails, but the child reflects on it later in life and continues the time loop.”

To truly answer your question, I feel like I need to read about child development and the education system in general.

You’re in luck! The Kennedy half dollar, minted since 1964.

I’ve always understood SoaD to be overtly political, with songs like Prison Song, Attack, BYOB, A.D.D., and on and on… I listened to them for a long time because I enjoyed the music, but when I gave more than two seconds to think about the lyrics, I immediately understood them to be political in nature (which I actually enjoyed and appreciated more).

When I want non-political music, I almost avoid lyrics entirely, or listen to old-timey songs about broken hearts and love. I particularly enjoy early jazz guitar like Billy Banks, or The Ink Spots. Or some good EDM like Jaded and Noizu.

There’s a bit of politics in so much lyrical music, even if it is less transparent, seemingly nonsensical stuff. I do enjoy a good revelation about some bands, though. Like the amount of veterans my age that listen to Lamb of God but are very enthusiastic about military service and God and country types, or as has been mentioned in the thread already, that whole thing with Rage Against the Machine. I feel like SoaD falls into this category a lot too, with these particular people.

There are certainly moments of social commentary in RHCP songs, but I do enjoy Frusciante’s and Flea’s musical prowess to a degree that I don’t care at all what they’re saying at times, and just very much enjoy the tunes.

Edit: After reading replies in here, I oughta mention I’m wrong and political music doesn’t actually exist.

There’s no paper or webpage long enough.

Not OP, but I am in a blue collar job and do the same. I get up at 4am and between brewing then drinking my coffee, eating a small breakfast, using the facilities, and doing general stuff getting ready to go to work, I then leave about 615am and clock in by 7am. I either read or listen to the news the whole time, or in this case, I also replied to your comment.

I know it’s a meme to knock on BMW drivers for this, but this just seems like your average driver of any car anymore.

All right, rant over.

I think a lot of people are very much pissed about their situations, but also mislead and/or ignorant about what the problems actually are, how solutions can be enacted, and both who can lead and who to blame.

There’s also burnout. I think most people are just trying to make sure they can get to work, see their family, raise their kids, etc. The system works to grind us down so we don’t put up a fight, and the system is working well.

My wife is like this. We’ll be on a walk and she’ll stop mid sentence to walk ten feet into someone’s yard and grab a four leaf clover. She does this all the time and we have a huge collection of them, and that’s with us usually giving them away to people we pass further down on our walks.

1. Behind the Bastards
2. Blowback

I didn’t listen to any other podcasts because there’s enough in these series to fill my work time and induce a rabid research of the topics discussed.

I think the word ‘conspiracy’ here is being conflated to mean ‘ridiculous, and false, conspiracy theory’. Conspiracies happen, but the word itself has the association with those who theorize and speculate on the absurd. I can say I don’t know for sure what the original commenter meant, but I think it is implied they meant they ‘know the Clinton’s murdering people isn’t true’.