I didn’t quit the LDS church, I was unofficially excommunicated for being born intersex and having a puberty not consistent with my assigned gender.

I have both sets of genitals. Both are small, deformed, and non-functional. The bishop at the time told my parents to keep it a secret and to raise me as a boy. Then puberty came along and I physically filled in as female.

It scared the ward members, it scared the bishop (different bishop than before), ajd it scared me. I didn’t know what was happening, nor did anyone else in the church. From their POV, a boy just physically changed into a girl.

The common sense thing to do was to consult a qualified and competent doctor about this, yet no one in the church did that. Not even my parents. The bishop gave my parents an ultimatum. Choose between God or your child abomination.

They chose God and my parents disowned & kicked me out. The church quietly turned their backs on me. They all wanted me to just go away.

I’m older now, wiser, and in a far more stable life. I’m even an ordained Satanic minister now, and I am happy. Our congregation welcomes those who are cast out. Words and deeds are more important than your physical appearance or what’s in your pants.

Edit: And before any LDS members respond with attempts to get me to rejoin, don’t bother. I no longer believe in gods, afterlives, and magic. Plus I will never rejoin the religion that cast me out for the crime of existing.

No, we would work together on tasks. I would walk to work while Other Me would take my car and get errands done. Or to change things up a little, Other Me could walk to work and I would run errands.

Hell, Other Me could play my online games and make progress while I’m at work. I’ve been meaning to level up my Black Mage in FFXIV, but life has kept me busy.

In the evenings, we would have to clearly explain to each other what we did that day and who we interacted with. Otherwise we risk diverging into two different people.

The point is whatever we choose for ourselves. Just because we eventually die doesn’t mean living isn’t worth it. I don’t care that one day I’ll eventually die, I enjoy living now.

In a word: Insecurity.

Matt used to he a firebrand on the Atheist Experience. He’s moved on to The Line show and continues with call-ins.

His “meanness” has been refined and aimed strictly at bad faith actors who call in. People who are honest and straightforward don’t get yelled at.

Is it the sweetness that you’re addicted to? The fizz itself maybe? There are drinks that are sweet yet not fizzy, and there are drinks that are fizzy yet not sweet. If you can find out, you can begin to substitute less unhealthy options. Then eventually quit entirely.

I left Twitter sometime after Elon bought it. The content in my feed drastically changed and was filled with racism, Nazi glorifiction, and child prawn. Reporting these posts did nothing, the automated respone system kept claiming there was no violation. So I deleted my account and never came back. I also actively avoid clicking on Twitter post links.

I didn’t quit Reddit, but it quit me. Reddit perma-banned me for speaking out against the genocide in Gaza. An admin even called me a “disgusting Nazi simp” because I opposed the genocide. The amount of admin and mod gaslighting & abuse is at an all time high.

I don’t do the Meta stuff because of all the cross platform account linking. I still have a FB account, but it’s not my real name, it lacks personal info, and it’s only to stay connected with family and IRL friends.

I got banned from Tiktok preemptively and I never learned why. I didn’t even have an account, but when I went to make one on my work phone, it said I’m banned. Weird. I tried making an account using my home phone as a test and it worked, but I just deleted it afterward without posting anything.

There really needs to be a digital bill of rights or something.

A power efficient e-ink laptop.

A laptop with a colossal battery life, I don’t care how chonky it is.

A smart watch that can do much more than the simple crap they do now. Larger is fine, maybe a smart bracer.

Multitools that are specifically designed for trades. It’s not tech, I would just love to have a multitool with specific tools for welding.

Some kind of wrist device where I can copy a file from one electronic device and paste it onto another device with hand gestures.

A Clockwork uConsole device that’s a bit more powerful and can use m.2. Those things are neat little kits, but they’re alway always always sold out of the good version. I wouldn’t mind a laptop in this format.

Doomsday prepping is the answer. Start building up a large supply of non-perishable foods, properly sealed for long term storage.

Have a wide variety of different food storage options. Having nothing to eat but rice will drive you insane (that’s not hyperbole, it’s serious).

Not just food storage, have tons of medical and hygeine priducts stored up as well. Things like toilet paper, toothpaste, wet wipes, ibuprophin, tums, etc. Assume there will be no stores or money in the future, plan acordingly.

Have all of your important documents in paper form. Keep all contact information, passwords, addresses, phone numbers, emails, and other important info on physical paper. There’s a strong possibility the internet will go down for a long period of time.

If possible, download Kiwik. Within the software, you can download all of wikipedia so that you have an accessable offline copy. It’s about 125gb in size.

Start downloading stuff you don’t want to lose. If you have a youtuve video ripper, start ripping videos on how to do things like repair your own car and other repair tutorials. Download videos and tutorials on how to cook if you don’t already know how. Also how to start and maintain a veggie garden.

Have a plan for the electric grid going down for a long period of time. Folding solar panels are a great way to keep phones and battery banks charged.

I could go on all day, but basucally you should prepare for a total government collapse. Internet, electricity, plumbing, trash removal, hospitals, police & fire rescue, depletion of groceries and store goods, etc. I have do doubt we’ll see these things either partially or completely collapse and fail.

As it turns out, having an account on a social media platform full of Nazis, violent racists, and child diddlers is not good for business.

Honestly, the only reason I’m still on Facebook is because of my local temple. If we could host a private group somewhere else with the same functionality, we’d jump ship in a heartbeat.

No, it sounds like your brother is actually the asshole.

If we’re talking the average working class voter, I hold a great amount of sympathy for them. I really do understand where they’re coming from.

The Democrats are corrupt as hell and aren’t doing a damn thing for the American people. Pre-Trump Republicans are corrupt as hell and aren’t doing a damn thing for the American people. The country is legitimately falling apart and there’s no one to turn to.

Here comes this guy out of nowhere who’s never been in politics and thus not beholden to their corrupt schemes. He’s promising to tear down the whole damn system that isn’t working for the average American. He recognizes and acknowledges the plight of working class America. He’s claiming that it needs to break completely before it can be repaired.

This is the reasoning behind my little brother supporting Trump. He’s so desperate for real change that he’s willing to overlook a lot of Trump’s bad behaviors. To my brother, Trump is a useful wrecking ball, a bulldozer coming to forcefully wipe away everything wrong with politics.

Of course, Trump has no real intentions of fixing anything. He’s just there to loot the government and shield himself from the law. All of the right wing supporters, politicians, preachers, and business execs are just stepping stones.

Reality has a left wing bias.

Its a joke, but not really. If you base your government on the facts of reality, it tends to be perceived as “left wing.”

Why where you there? What was it like? How did you do later in life? And did it have any effect as a adult?

I shouldn’t have been in special education, but I was. Home life was a nightmare. My mom and dad would constantly fight and take it out on me.

That meant once I left school for home, there was zero chance of ever getting any homework assignments done. I would get straight A’s on tests, yet would get all zeros on homework assignments.

The school wouldn’t listen, nor cared about, the abuse going on at home. They were always short staffed and short on budget, so special ed was their bandaid solution.

The special ed teachers ptotested time and time again as I clearly didn’t belong there. Sometimes the class would read aloud a book together. We would go in a circle, each reading a paragraph. Everyone else struggled to get through it, I breezed through it.

The teachers wouldn’t let me participate anymore as I was unintentionally embarrassing the other students. There was no internet or smartphones at the time. So I spent nearly all of high school, reading any and every book I could get my hands on, silently.

Do you think that you would keep your integrity and use your money for the greater good, or that you would be corrupted by your power?

I suppose it’s a matter of perspective. Very few people in the world ever see themselves as actually evil. Every villain is the hero in their own story.

But if we recognize basic truths about people’s preferences, I think a greater good can be achieved. Everyone wants a place to call home and good food on the table. Everyone wants good health and to have a sense of purpose or meaning to their lives.

This is universal, regardless of race, sex, gender, nationality, language (I can’t include religion as some religions demand the oppression & extermination of others).

I would teach Shop (that was still a thing when I was in high school in the 90s). I’m really good at making practical things, and making repairs. I would love to teach the basics like how to change a tire and whatnot.

It’s lonely being intelligent. Maybe I’m just in the wrong social circles.

I like to read books at my construction job when we’re not busy. Yet none of my coworkers have read a book since early middle school, and they only skimmed it to half-ass a book report. I can’t talk to them about anything except work.

I’ve never been beautiful my whole life. I’d give myself a 4 out of 10, a little less than average. I never really cared about my looks, I haven’t worn makeup in ages.

I’d be interested in giving beauty a trial run, see if it suits me better than intelligence.

I got banned from reddit for saying the genocide in Gaza was bad.

I feel OK about it, for the most part. I can say "genocide is always wrong" and not get banned here.