70% of Canadians live south of the 49th Parallel, the northern border of the US.

Same. The redneck stuff would be more concerning if I didn’t know how to fix redneck stuff.

After a cursory search it seems like both are acceptable. “Think” appears to be the original phrase, but “thing” is more common today, especially in America.

Recognize the problems which you have the power to solve, and the ones you don’t. Fix what you can with mindfulness and compassion, accept what you can’t with emotionless calm. Reevaluate periodically.

I use messenger to get in touch with people I have no other contact info for.

I use marketplace because Craigslist is a ghost town.

The things other platforms don’t do better is “have a near ubiquitous user base”.

I haven’t used Facebook as social media for at least a decade

Absolutely. I’m not terribly privileged, but while the difficulties of life are non-trivial, overall I’ve experienced enough joy to justify the expense.

Just a few things:

1. Bit presumptuous to assume I’m neurotypical.

2. I’m pulling my information from psychologists, like the ones who described the signs and symptoms of NPD in the DSM.

3. I have extensive experience with more than one narcissist. Failing to recognize their own abusive behavior, and the link to subsequent social fallout, is textbook narcissism.

4. I’m not trying to make judgement on their struggles, I’m stating that believing oneself to be unfairly targeted is a symptom of narcissism.

It’s more like someone who is nose blind to their own horrific body odor (thanks to my MtG phase, also something I’m quite familiar with) than race. They think they smell fine, yet people react poorly to them, some even suggest bathing or deodorant. Since they can’t smell themself, they interpret these comments as baseless. They think they smell fine, and other nose blind smelly people will only confirm their self-assuredness.

NPD is also typified by not recognizing your behavioral offenses, and reacting to criticism by claiming to be the victim. The narcissists in my life never think they do anything wrong, that their abusive behavior is normal or acceptable, that their critics are attacking them for no reason, out of unfounded hatred or jealousy.

That does not make for a reliable evaluation. Claims of baseless attacks from a person who thinks every attack against them is baseless, does not prove that those attacks are actually baseless.

And yeah, people with NPD are very often attacked by neurotypicals for their thoughtcrimes.

Source? I’ve dealt with more than my share of narcissists, and I’ve never seen this. They might say things like “You really do think you’re the center of the universe, unbelievable” but it’s not because of the thought itself, it’s because of a history of harmful behavior linked to that thought. Manipulation, verbal abuse, selfishness at the expense of others, etc.

If you somehow had all the non-behavioral traits, but were able to avoid all the telltale narcissistic behaviors, no one would attack you for your narcissistic thoughtcrimes.

On a cosmic timescale, facilitate a world with minimal suffering and maximal fulfillment.

Always faithful terrible lizard?

Enough high school Latin and amateur Greek to puzzle out the meaning of most new words I see.

The Mars Volta in general. Tons of friends have recommended them to me after hearing some of what I listen to, and it’s just not my jam. On paper I should, but alas.

I proposed to my wife at Christmas by putting the ring in a bigger box so she was surprised. It was a box for skincare product, and she was actually excited for it before she even opened it to see the ring. Obviously she was happy for the proposal, but she also seemed a little disappointed she didn’t get skincare stuff.

The following Christmas, I got her a tiny container of a skincare product she liked and put it in a ring box.

Wait until you hear about the Veruca Gnome

I didn’t wear a trenchcoat. If I told you what I did instead, I’d probably doxx myself. It was cringe.

Not OP, but also an annoying adolescent atheist. After actually giving it some thought, I realized I was contextualizing the concept all wrong. Just because most people seem to contextualize God as a Santa Claus figure (bearded man who lives above us and judges our conduct, with fitting consequences) didn’t mean I had to accept that context.

There have been many very intelligent people across history who had many interesting things to say about deity. Few of them were using the Santa Claus model.

I would imagine the FSM to be composed of the platonic ideal of gluten rather than physical gluten, though I’m not sure if that would be more irritating or less. I’d consult a GI and maybe a metaphysician.

See if you qualify for any down payment assistance programs. Combined with an FHA loan, you could possibly get into a house with under $5k.

I block a lot of instances because they’re specific to interests I don’t care about. I’ve blocked 2 particularly obstinate users.