Reminder that people aren't entitled to see into your decision-making process unless you've agreed that they are. Just told a business acquaintance that I'd "just finished up my previous commitment". It's not their problem to know that it was DND.

Just to make sure no one schedules meetings on top of my D&D sessions, BUT ALSO to avoid any chance of my coworkers figuring out when I’m playing D&D, I always block sessions out on my calendar with the appointment title:

“Conflict Resolution Seminar”

It’s not a lie, I’m discussing with a small group how to resolve conflict. Not my fault that the answer is often violence.

Bro I love you but if I saw in the communal calendar that one of my coworkers had attended thirty conflict resolution seminars over the last year then I would immediately assume they had committed innumerable acts of workplace violence and management was too scared to fire them

Explanation:

>Japan bombs Pearl Harbor which brings America into World War II

>The draft for WWII creates a labor shortage in the US

>Because of the labor shortage, companies start significantly raising wages.

>FDR is worried that if wages go up too fast it could create runaway inflation, so he signs an executive order creating the National War Labor Board, which standardized salaries during the war in order to stabilize prices.

>Companies wanted a way to compete for talent in a limited labor pool despite not being able to offer higher salaries, so they started offering benefits packages to attract workers, the cornerstone of which was health insurance

>After the war, companies didn't want to give up their role in providing health insurance because it served them well in terms of both recruiting and retention (i.e. you're less likely to quit your job if it means losing your health insurance)

>This model becomes increasingly common across the US to the point where private health insurance companies are paying for the majority of healthcare expenses in the US

>Because the majority of healthcare costs were being paid by insurance companies rather than the people receiving care, hospitals began massively inflating the sticker price of their services with the expectation that the insurance company would negotiate those numbers down (as private insurance companies are want to do)

>Insurance companies take advantage of the increase in sticker prices by increasing premiums and passing off more of their costs to the consumer while continuing to negotiate down the actual price paid to hospitals

>This cycle repeats until the average hospital bill is completely divorced from any of the actual costs of the service

>In 2024 the average cost of giving birth in America is over $18,000

watching gen z and millennials make fun of gen alpha has been torturous. "But they're actually stupid" 1. theyre middle schoolers 2. isn't that what older gens said about us? don't you remember being 11?

it truly is just "impulse reaction to cringe <- has not yet unlearned shame"

the cycle continues let me out of here

guys. guys I think we should kill cringe culture

My kids and their friends are Gen Alpha, and they are sweet, sweet kids living though appalling times.

They grew up with the most rigidly binary models of childhood that have existed in my lifetime (girl-glue, anyone?) and been viewed as their earning potential since before they could walk. They have been exploited and abandoned on the internet by their parents, have been exploited on the internet by the algorithm when they were too young to understand it. They are the first large generation of the children of Mommy bloggers, anti-vaxxers, trad wives, and quiverful types.

They’ve survived a pandemic, and had it cut through their schooling in a way that has been enormously traumatic. They have the smallest outdoor range of any generation to date. In their lifetime, climate change has become violently real, socioeconomic disparity has only increased, reactionary movements have increased, and rights that we’ve taken for granted have been rolled back. They are the generation of British trans kids taking their lives on the now-static youth GIC waiting lists. The American trans kids who are watching their very existence become illegal. They are the generation of creative kids whose arts and humanities funding has been cut to the bone. A generation who have grown up watching soft-lit, queer friendly cartoons, walking out in to a world of violent trans and homophobia.

They are depressed, anxious, afraid. Their aspirations are low, their hopes for the future fragile.

They are clever, and creative, and charming, and brave. And they are KIDS.

Be nice to them, they’re dealing with a lot.

A Bug’s Life, 1998

compilation of this type of post

As we move into 2022, a message to all my followers and mutuals from Werner Herzog.

Bringing this back for 2024

TIP: Most actions are sinful!

TIP: Do as many as possible to fill your sin meter!

Eugene gets me

HAPPY LIMINAL SPACEMAS, COUCHES

A story I heard (so I cannot vouch for its accuracy) was that a doctor in a small town (maybe US Midwest) that most of the health issues he saw in his child patients could be solved with nutritious food (i.e. rickets). So he prescribed food.

It was a prescription, so it was covered. Someone came along and said "but you can't do that, food isn't medicine."

His response, "Medicine is to cure ills. If oranges cure scurvy and milk cures rickets, doesn't that make them medicine?"

And this was the impetus for the food stamp program.

So yeah, if a doctor prescribes something, you should get it. Insurance should cover it.

there's currently (Dec2024) a hospital in boston filling prescriptions for utilities with their own solar farm!

Even if someone did medically need a speedboat it should be available to them.

For those who don't know, Otter is quite hearing impaired or deaf, so his noises are extra loud.

The one where he hugs his little face and whimpers ruined me.

Because I’ve lost control of my life

I love that the pandemic actually definitively proved a lot of those "hard" questions for us. Masking up reduced cases of the flu to almost nonexistent numbers and we had zero flu deaths for a time. The welfare and social service and unemployment programs helped keep people living paycheck to paycheck out of poverty, and those stimulus checks some folks keep complaining about actually massively benefitted the common man and the economy. Individual personal travel was so extremely restricted on a global scale that we basically have concrete proof that individual restraint in terms of driving cars or travelling means absolutely nothing by comparison because the mass pollution is coming from the fisheries and the corporations with private jets and container ships. Working from home actually has massive benefits for a company like productivity boosts and better mental health of employees while also saving gas

and we're just. Willingly going back to how everything was before. We were shown how to do things better and the people in charge said "that's nice but we just want to get everything 'back to normal' :)"

we’re not willingly going back to how everything was before. we are being forced back into it by members of the ruling class who found out that making things better for almost everyone else made them feel bad.

Let's not forget about any of these things. Let's reblog and schedule this post to pop in in the future to remind us of what we may have forgotten a little.

Do not forget.

Fuckin gottem boys

how did I guess this account was a bot? 1: didn't actually address anything in the main post 2: username is three random words stuck together & a default pfp 3: immediately asks to go to dm's

Take this as a huge fucking sign. They are paying for bots to sow "empathy" for the 1% leeches among us poors. It is IMPORTANT to them that you are not only blind to the evils they cause but would also defend them when they would kill you in the street for a dollar. Do Not Fucking Believe Them. Your anger and rage against these rich assholes is your most important weapon.

A Bug’s Life, 1998

Briana Boston faces terrorism charges and CEOs are getting free therapy

Briana Boston is a 42 year old mother of three from Florida who is under house arrest for expressing her frustration at her insurance (which she PAYS for) who denied her claim. She owns ZERO guns and doesn't have a criminal record.

She was originally held in prison for $100,000 bail. They have not dropped the charges and she is under house arrest even after widespread backlash.

They are trying to charge her with terrorism. They want her to spend 15 years in prison.

They are calling her a Luigi Mangione copycat. As if she killed someone. She made a indirect, not at all credible threat.

Meanwhile...

I want every woman who has ever faced threats online, stalking, etc to bring this Briana Boston up at every opportunity. Every time you were told by police that there was nothing they could do, know that they not only CAN do something, but they WILL do something, just not for you.

As more news about that guy who shot that other guy breaks, please do keep in mind that cops always lie. Please do keep in mind that any information given to the press by law enforcement cannot be considered in any way reliable until it's been corroborated.

Also, keep in mind that the arrested party is only a suspect, and he should be considered innocent until proven guilty.

Also, please keep in mind the following image: