They read the exact same information as everybody but arrive at the exact opposite conclusion than people with a functioning brain.
Moss Cow
I’m listening on Audible to a book titled Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy by Julia Ioffe. I’m only half through and not ready to opine on the book but I have to mention something that is very annoying and detracts from my reading pleasure. Ioffe reads the book herself, and even though her family emigrated from the USSR when she was only 7, she somehow managed to develop a nasty moss cow accent in her Russian. (The book is in English but Ioffe pronounces names and some phrases in Russian).
I can’t stand the moss cow accent. It’s ugly, it’s stupid. One doesn’t expect it from somebody who left the country at 7.
OK, I feel better now and can continue reading.
Q&A: Preteen Girls
Developmental goals of each age are different. I went through a whole stage where all I wanted was to chase boys, engage in materialistic pursuits, and thought reading and especially being an academic were dumb things to do. You should have heard the contempt I heaped at people who learned Latin and the hatred I had for bookishness. And look at me now.
If you told me you had a preteen who was all about academics and productivity goals, then I’d worry. But yours sounds eminently normal. Please remember that pre-teen girls do come off as dumb and disorganized because their bodies are preparing for the enormous transformation of puberty. Without knowing that she’s doing it, your little girl is gathering energy to start turning into a woman. Girls become very forgetful and distracted at this age. They lose things all the time, and it feels like they are doing it on purpose. But it’s completely physical and in no way predicts what they will be as adults.
Remember mommy brain? When you were in the third trimester and then in the first year of your child’s life? The brain fog, the forgetfulness? I didn’t write a single line in that time. I felt completely stupid. It was because my body was occupied with the task of gestating and then nourishing a child. It’s a stage. It’s similar with preteen girls. It will all pass. She’ll be fine.
Q&A: Is Therapy Working?
I’ve got a bunch of therapy-related questions, and here is the first one:
During the sessions, do you feel that your way of thinking about something is pierced and transformed by an insight? Do you go, “oh, wow, I never thought of it this way but it totally makes sense”?
Do you feel that you have extra energy? This is something that happens pretty immediately if things are going to work.
Do you feel lighter?
Do you feel that you need unhealthy compensatory mechanisms less?
Do you smoke, drink, vape, eat, game, scroll, etc less?
Do you feel a need to be more physically active?
If none of this is happening and the problems you initially wanted to address aren’t resolving either, then it might not be working. It’s very possible that the therapist is great and you are great but the relationship between the two of you can’t give you the relief you need.
Therapist Buzzwords
Excellent advice for people who are looking for a therapist:
All these buzzwords are gigantic, pulsating, neon red flags.
The China Pivot
I have changed my mind about China and have become a fan. That happened because I discovered the only fast food I like, and that is Panda Express. Which I know has the most tenuous connection to actual Chinese food but who cares? It’s still very enjoyable.
Of course, I don’t get the rice and only ask for very specific items on the menu in very small boxes. But it’s done. I’m now pro-China.
Worried
This is the same woman from before who bragged that the guy filled her water bottle and heated her bagel:
I’m genuinely worried about her. I’ve recently watched a true crime documentary where the husband addressed his wife in the same subservient tone while she rode him like a tired old mare. And then he murdered her and the kids.
She needs to run far, far away from this maniac but it’s impossible to tell such women that this is not normal.
A Different Right
It is the assumption that, since I’m now conservative, I should be devoted to Reagan and Bush that gets to me. I despise those fuckers. People keep bringing them up to me like it’s 2002. I wasn’t for them then, and I’m not for them now. I’m for the nation-state.
Political realignment happens all the time. In the 1990s, every left-wing party of every developed country embraced neoliberalism. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, the Left went far into neoliberal direction, economically and in every other way. As a result, part of the Right pivoted and started walking away from neoliberalism. Part, not whole. I’m the Right that wants to leave neoliberalism. We are still finding our way to our freshly non-neoliberal position. We fumble and make mistakes. But at least we are trying. Everybody else is still free-marketeering and choicing their way into the neoliberal future of lonely godlike selves with detachable body parts and endless freedom to discard every attachment.
Cultural Conservatism
The economy doesn’t decide everything but it does decide a lot. Neoliberal economic principles (deregulation, mass migration, weakening of the nation-state, globalization) will inevitably bring into existence the neoliberal selfhood. People adopt the shape of capital and become rootless, movable, unattached and valuing freedom and choice above everything else. A neoliberal who expresses conservative cultural beliefs always brings about the destruction of conservative culture. There is no conservative culture, no family, no community, no permanence or stability in the neoliberal economy.
Reagan is the perfect example of this neoliberal sleight of hand. He said culturally conservative things and turned California mega liberal for generations to come because he was a neoliberal open-border fanatic.
An AI Miracle
AI has caused a miracle and cured climate change:
AI needs an enormous amount of energy, which motivated our eager overlords to drop their concerns about climate change. The shamelessness of these people knows no limits.
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