This is what around half of the voting public wants. I’m going to be doing what I can to try to fight against this (for as long as I remain anyway), but the rest of the world needs to plan as if the U.S. is an enemy state and an active threat. We should be given no benefit of the doubt. No trust. Assume the worst and then try and think about how it could be even worse and go with that.

I’m in the US, I voted against Trump, I’m likely going to suffer if he is able to accomplish a smidgen of what he has talked about, and I think we got what we deserved and the sentiment from your OP is valid. I know a lot of innocent people are going to suffer, but this is a country of very selfish people. Even some of the most liberal people I have met in this country still have a very selfish mindset and reason for the liberal bent. As soon as they attain a position where they have an advantage they basically pull up the ladder. I’m personally tired of it.

People are going to die, ecosystems are going to burn, countries may very well fall. My only hope is that things only get bad enough that the masses learn an important lesson that at least lasts for their generation and that recovery is possible in that time frame.

It’s not that I don’t care. It’s not even that I don’t have the fight left in me. I just don’t see any kind of path to a better place without substantial harm occurring first. I will not be happy to be right. I want to be wrong.

You mean like the cat that kills all manner of wildlife for no reason?

Unless you live in a place that legally requires all casks to be placed into a cement vault when they are buried. I guess technically the body does still decompose, but volume consumed by the entire endeavor doesn’t really change.

It’s amusing you mention the kink community, because that’s kinda where I have been thinking about recently. I’m very much a versatile, but have only ever been the dominate one (I have never knowingly met or interacted with a dominate women that wasn’t an obvious scammer). I have always been kink adjacent, meaning people I have dated or know are/were involved in it, but I never have been. I have poked around and found there are some Femdom related meetups and munches in my area, so I do plan on scoping one of them out at some point.

My only real ‘hesitation’ is just the type of women in my area that tend to be involved in kink in my area tend to be a bit larger and older than I would prefer 😅. Not that I’m shaming them for that, everyone should be comfortable in their own bodies. In fact, I would estimate at least 80% of my partners have weighed more than me while being shorter than me. I’m not actually that picky, I just know that ultimately I would like someone who is at a similar activity level and overall level of fitness. I’m not looking for a super model.

I am exactly average for my height and weight… if it were the 1970s. That eliminates 66% of the population in my area though and is likely something I will likely concede on as I have in the past.

Really, I’m mostly holding out for VR or holographic projections to get to a point where I can reasonably pretend/convince myself (not actually but you know what I mean) it’s good enough. Something along the lines of what K has in his apartment in Blade Runner 2049. I’m thinking in like 20-30 years maybe?

Edit: I actually did the math not too long ago pulling data from the most recent census and Pew Research and the number of women that match my criteria and are on dating apps in my area is about 35. Well like 35.6 but I’m not sure if I should count on the double leg amputee or not (joking). That number is likely a little smaller due to some things I couldn’t get numbers for.

Like I said, it’s my only option really, but been doing it when out of a relationship for at least a decade.

Not to be too snarky, I know you are just trying to be helpful, but I have tons of hobbies I enjoy and not enough time and money to enjoy the ones that I do have. I’m not looking for someone that shares my every hobby, but the only women I seem to connect with are of the engineering STEM type, but the interest has always been very one sided.

Another unfortunate part of our current reality is that life at this point almost assumes there are two working people in a household. It can be very difficult just getting daily and weekly responsibilities done with any time left over.

Then being told that despite doing everything society says one should do and be to be desirable to a partner (including being understanding and respectful of others struggles, trauma, neurodiversity, etc.) basically being told I just need to be more social is infuriating. So the fact that I’m introverted and find lots of social interaction taxing is something I need to get over, but I need to just accept that I will never have someone ASK ME out and I need to be patient and understanding with everyone I interact with?

I said, I know you are just trying to be helpful, and this frustration isn’t directed at you, but life more generally. It’s something I have gotten a lot of and feels a lot like “hopes and prayers”. It’s a reaction people seem to have wanting to somehow cognitively decouple from the core root cause and find a way to other me and what I need to do so that they don’t have to really engage with and think about the cold reality of it all.

My issue is with your first sentence (cis white man that is about as just barely straight). With all of the talk about equality, equity, and BS gender roles, I’m still expected to make all of the initial moves and decisions in real life and on apps. However, I’m mildly on the spectrum and my natural tenancy is to be very aggressive in my methods (not in a violent way and not just with people, just mean I am very earnest, locked in, and tenacious with most things I do).

I have never been approached, hit on, or asked out by a women in real life, though I have by men a couple of times. When I’m in public or at a bar I am literally invisible, unless I happen to walk into a women’s zone of awareness (not personal space, but the point/distance where they then have to make a judgment as to whether I am a threat or not).

The advantage of online dating is that if I match with someone it’s reasonable to assume they are interested in me which puts me past the initial barrier in real life of not being able to tell. At that point I’m pretty OK at interacting with a person and flirting etc. However, my hobbies and the things I would like a partner to enjoy doing with me are very male dominated.

The result of this is that I haven’t ever had a partner or dated someone who didn’t have crippling anxiety and/or deep self-image issues where they use their partner for all of the validation and structure they haven’t figured out how to do from within themselves. Which at least to me makes sense, since women with the same interests as mine are surrounded by men all the time everyday, and so the confident well adjusted women have the metaphorical pick of the litter and probably end up with one of the few not problematic men in that space that are also well adjusted.

I am well aware it’s far more complicated than that, and that women face a number of other struggles, but Game Theory does still very much apply, and so as I was saying before despite all of the rhetoric about equity, I still have to play by the old rules while somehow also playing by the new ones at the same time.

It’s exhausting.

Drink More Glurp!

Windows 10 DLC just dropped. Copilot added from Windows 11.

When not even my closest coworkers or boss could tell if I was working or screwing off because working on or doing research for my personal projects is indistinguishable from my work ones 😅