I understand that Hexbear has young and vulnerable people, making it potentially unsafe for something as personal and private as sexuality, but I was wondering if there are many online spaces that are friendly and nonjudgmental for that.

There are topics I'd like to discuss like classism in hookup culture/kink communities, but I don't want to make people uncomfortable. I also can't account for wreckers and just general topic derailment.

Also in general, are there considerations I should take when broaching these topics in online spaces?

I feel like we're doing a good job of protecting people from sex pests and I don't want to make a safe place unsafe.

I'm not surprised given the person in charge, but I still feel bad for the guy. Being almost completely paralyzed, it makes total sense to jump at the chance to get some normalcy back.

I didn't expect 85% of the wires to already detach at this point. In a just society, the whole company would be shut down and the CEO put into a bottomless pit.

I want Jimmy Kimmel to hire the animators from the animation he played when Trump left the white house and make a clip of the statue of Liberty clap along to a parody song.

Everyone do the Pelosi Clap!

Clap Clap!

Clap Clap!

I want Stephen Colbert to come out dancing with drag queens in pant suits and bad wigs to clap and get the audience involved so they clap out of tune.

I wanna see Pete Buttigieg's high hopes as he lets another train derail.

I want Joe Brandon to make a cameo as he looks dead-eyed into the camera and makes a gaffe.

And I wish for all of this to be performed without a hint of irony on-screen.

I wish for this without irony.

Seriously though, it's wild watching the generation who kept receipts turn on each other.

But I really just wanted to make a silly pun.

Put the upbears in the bag!

If you really want the link.

So many layers of The Process and the only defense against political assassinations is voting.

We are so far past the point of voting our way out. We're the most propagandized people on earth. My god. And the US has been assassinating political rivals since it's founding. It's a country built on assassinating political rivals.

It's like I can feel myself detach from whatever topic I'm listening to as I expect it to be a lead up for Raid Shadow Legends.

It's like I'm gonna disengage from serious things because I'm just waiting to see how they are going to ask for money.

I get it's to keep engagement, but it's doing the opposite. I don't want you to slip between conversation into a commercial like that's not creepy as fuck. It's like the Truman show, but nobody's even watching you. I dunno, it's not fun out here.

Fun Magician extended universe lore - this was the podcast that broke my liberal brain and pushed me towards communism.

From Wikipedia:

Mueller, She Wrote is a political podcast hosted by Allison Gill, a military veteran who worked at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. It mixes comedy, legal commentary and political analysis, from a liberal perspective, and centers on the Mueller investigation. The original co-hosts were San Diego comedians Jordan Coburn and Jaleesa Johnson; the latter has since left the show due to a pay dispute.

I remember feeling lost after trump got elected and hoped that something would come of the Mueller report. It's wild to think I believed an FBI investigation run by a Republican would to anything to shake up the system, but there were plenty of people who believed it.

These hosts would give updates on the investigation and other bits of news, but it started feeling hollow around the third 'this time he's really in trouble!' story.

The simping for Mueller like he was going to solve things felt hollower and hollower until I stopped listening altogether.

I read up on them a few years later and saw them vote shaming people who were considering withholding their vote for healthcare and student debt forgiveness. I also found out they benefited from PPP loans they didn't have to reimburse. Hypocrisy exposed is an empty victory, but it felt vindicating to know leaving that whole bubble was a good decision.

Finally, I hate the logo so much. Like they were doing investigative journalism or something by collecting headlines from news websites.

I dunno. I just wanted to air out my vitriol while it was fresh.

Did anybody else follow it or similar podcasts before moving left?

It's weird, in the moment, I get blindsided by an interaction and only after it's over to I realize I said or went along with things I didn't want to. I'm trying so hard not to talk to people and I want to change that. I'm avoiding people because I'm scared of interacting and getting it wrong.

I can protect myself, but that means against everyone. Like I can deflect with humor or defend myself and so I keep people at a distance. I'm pushing people away, I'm avoiding them that badly. Because the truth is, I don't assert myself at all. I'm afraid that asserting myself will hurt people.

But I know I'm hitting a wall and that's from me not being assertive.

How do you know when you're doing too much or too little assertiveness? Do you have an internal sense of that? The way I sense it is by looking at the person for signs of pain or discomfort when I talk. So I hold back when I know what I'm saying might be something they don't want to hear.

What helps you know when you're being appropriately assertive?

Like them playing animal crossing or whatever, reading the character text aloud and then reacting like they're full-on having a conversation? They are framed as though playing the game in real time, but it's clear that they're reacting to a video of playing. It feels like watching someone play dolls or something and I can't stand it.

They're reacting to it like the characters are real. The YouTuber might talk about some of their own lives every now and then, but it all just feels so empty and I'm having a hard time understanding what the appeal is.

My partner loves these kinds of videos and I'm trying to figure out what it is about them that people like. Is there some comfort to them that I'm not getting?

I know there isn't any visible platform or coherent ideology, but I was hoping there would be something more than 'not trump.' like where are the donations even going? They couldn't even pretend to have talking points.

Do these condescending automated messages work on people? I can't wrap my head around the strategy behind taking a tone like this with your voter base.

Fuck outta here.

I can learn things if they're a game and I have a good ear for sound. I just want to be able to know a note when I hear and find it on a musical instrument.