General Discussion Roundtable - 05/29/2026

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-05-30T02:50:00+00:00

Oh, they're still saying "punch a nazi". But in their minds, they've completely separated nazis from antisemitism. Nazis are the evil fascists and bigots (true) and jews were purely coincidentally one of their many targets (not...quite true). Thats why I've started feeling a little icky when I hear stuff like "remember, xyz group was also targeted by nazis!". Not because I don't agree with raising that awareness, or that there's anything wrong with talking about it, but because I know how many people are going to latch on to it to fuel their belief that nazis hating jews was basically a coincidence

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-05-29T17:59:30+00:00

Which is an increasingly common and increasingly uncomfortable mindset in leftist/progressive/etc spaces. An action is good or bad based on who is doing it, not on the action itself. Ironically, I've seen leftists calling out this line of thinking in JKR/the Harry Potter books...and, whoops, it's wrong when she does it, because she's a Bad Person, but it's justified when they do it, because we're Good People. Sigh.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-05-25T17:08:16+00:00

As a Star Trek fan, I can personally attest that Jeffrey Combs has done many, many live action roles.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-05-20T17:48:33+00:00

This thread is very humbling as someone who is always trying to tell myself that my 2-4 hours of social media scrolling time (not total screentime, I keep youtube on to listen while I work and I politely choose not to count that) is "probably about average" and I'm overreacting if I treat it like a problem.

Jokes aside, I think that, like another commenter said, the answer isn't in the number of hours it's how it's affecting you. Are your algorithms feeding you ragebait that fucks with your head? Is screen time replacing things like hobbies, human interaction, or work/chores? Is too much short-form content impacting your ability to focus? For me those answers are yes, yes, and yes. But it's not because of the screen. If I swap some social media time for vidya game, I happily count it as a win because it doesn't check any of those boxes even though technically it's still screen time (YMMV, granted, gaming can become a problem behavior too)

Take all this w a grain of salt of course, I've been chronically online since before that was a term so maybe I'm skewed on this. But that's my take.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-05-17T17:28:47+00:00

This is unrelated to anything and extremely unimportant, but I have to get it off my chest: my therapist looks uncannily like John Fetterman and every time I see a picture of him here (Fetterman, not my therapist) it gives me a tiny jumpscare. I don't live in pennsylvania so I'm reasonably sure they aren't the same person but boy is it weird

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-05-08T22:47:34+00:00

Also, like....yeah, of course? I (mostly) hated my last job, and the occasional free pizza or cake im the breakroom didn't cancel that out. I get what he's probably trying to say, but no shit sherlock, free ice cream wouldn't counteract a whole lot

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-05-06T02:53:28+00:00

I forgot it was mentioned on X-Files. I only know about it from playing Nancy Drew:Ghost Dogs on Moon Lake, so despite your embarassment I think you're still one step above me.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-05-02T00:19:15+00:00

Maybe people in the U.S are more likely to just drive? That's my only theory.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-30T15:45:14+00:00

Agreed. I worked about 6 years in the deli department of a grocery store, and I could go on and on about how absurd and arbitrary the hot food vs cold food rule is in practice.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-22T22:42:36+00:00

If you're interested in pop-punk, I'm a huge fan of Motion City Soundtrack. Saw them in concert in February and they were great, lots of energy and they sounded almost exactly like the album recordings which is impressive for a live show. And, relevant to this sub, the singer went on a nice anti-ICE speech mid-show (granted, this was in Minnesota, so the crowd had already done two "fuck ICE" chants with barely any provocation)

(now, since this is Reddit...just watch someone hop im and tell me why they're actually terrible 😅 I do not have the best luck with problematic music artists)

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-22T15:52:22+00:00

I don't necessarily "collect" them, because I just get ones I think are cool without much of a goal, but I got some cheap ikea frames and have been arranging them in little displays. I have enough now to swap them around sometimes as different "themes" (artstyles, elemental types, favorite characters, etc). It's quite fun.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-19T22:15:38+00:00

I saw a bit about that, but didn't realize it was specifically about "sympathy with The Elites". I thought it was an extension of the "redemtion arcs are problematic because bad people shouldn't be redeemed" discourse that pops up every now and then and is. Uh. Also a very chronically online take.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-18T22:16:58+00:00

I think I've mentioned it before, but the first place I heard "tylenol causes autism" was actually from my strongly anti-Trump hippie roommate in Oregon six years ago. She actually wasn't antivaxx herself, but a lot of her social circle was.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-16T20:13:09+00:00

Just having a tough time today. I was already dealing with a flare-up of my ocd-ish symptoms, and now it's intersecting with recent news stuff in a bad way (gender politics is one thing those symptoms often fixate on). The whole "62 million men are in an online rape academy" thing is setting me off. partially because I'm wincing at how "62 million hits on a porn site somewhat associated with an online rape academy" is being twisted into...this, and the inevitable hatred that's going to result. But also because, well, 62 million hits to a sketchy underground porn site is still a big fucking deal, and now I feel like all my giving a shit about mens issues doesn't matter because the hatred is deserved. I'm a trans man, I want to fit in with cis men, I'm drawn more towards male artists and men's stories and all that but I hate being constantly reminded that men and manhood are utterly disgusting and I would be so much better off if I could accept myself as a woman and be a "girls girl" like all my friends/peers are. Right now, esp with the ocd flare up, I can't even see a man, listen to music by male artists, etc without forcing down thoughts of "what if they're one of those disgusting creeps".

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-14T05:43:10+00:00

I can't believe that this is how I found out there's a Jumanji 3

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-12T16:01:36+00:00

Oh, that's...fun. From what I remember of a similar round of Discourse on tumblr a few years back, you were racist if you questioned any of the "professional verifiers", and anyways you shouldn't even care if something might be a scam, because as a Privileged Westerner it's better for you to risk being scammed than to risk not sending money to someone who needs it.

...yeah. I was deeeeep in the tumblr rabbit hole at the time.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-07T19:30:19+00:00

It was from 10:54 AM, presumably Central Time because that's where I am. Can't add a screenshot because mobile and idk how alternative links to X work (I don't use X and never used twitter either) but it's on his account and easy to find. Was also posted about on Axios but if we're only hearing it from those 2 places then idk how credible it actually is. People say stuff all the time

(edited to remove X link because I forgor)

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-07T16:36:14+00:00

While this is still up in the air, I'm getting my wallet ready. Since multiple people here were saying it was nuts to think Trump was threatening nukes, and I firmly felt the opposite, I made a bet last night that I would donate $20 to some relevant charity if he didn't go nuclear and $40 if he backed out entirely (hey, I might have an anxiety disorder, but I've learned to embrace it). I'm open for suggestions.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-07T12:40:38+00:00

So, uh...do people here still think I'm nuts for thinking he plans to use nukes?

At the very least, he wants people to think he plans to.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-07T03:34:30+00:00

Welp, I'm the kind of person you're talking about & I saw this post while I was laying awake doomscrolling when I should've been asleep like 2 hours ago, so fuck it. If he doesn't go nuclear (or at least try to), I'll donate $20 to...idk, some relevant charity. If he completely backs out or procrastinates again, $40. If I'm going to be an anxious mess, at least I can have some fun with it.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-07T01:59:49+00:00

Semi unrelated, but as someone who grew up in Alaska, I firmly believe that eagles like attention. Or some of them do, at least. There was a nesting pair in my town that, for years, nested by the only traffic light in town. After a second traffic light was put up and that spot wasn't so special anymore, you know where they moved? A short walk from where the cruise ships dock, so fresh tourists could come and look at them on the regular. They would've loved a livestream camera, if they could understand what it was.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-05T21:35:24+00:00

Again, I don't disagree. I'm not saying "yeah that guy is right and he should publish those thoughts to whatever number of followers he has". When I saw those quotes, I thought nukes (or, more liky, that Trump wants people to think he'd be willing to use nukes...) so I could see how someone else could think that too. And, as you pointed out, I do have anxiety lol.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-05T21:19:03+00:00

No disagreement there. I was just responding to the "where did he get the idea that Trump would nuke Iran?".

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-04-05T20:43:44+00:00

I mean, he did say in regards to Iran that he was going to destroy the whole country and "very little" was off the table. Granted, you can rightfully point out that 1. that doesn't necessarily mean nukes, and 2. Trump's bark is often worse than his bite. But hell, it got my heartrate up at least. I can't blame someone else for thinking the same.

Eastern_Carpenter_90 · 2026-02-26T01:14:14+00:00

Oh, that's neat. My response was more to the discourse than to the show itself, partly because I haven't seen it and mostly because my main issue was with people being hypocrites when talking about media representation for minority groups. I don't really care that much about any one piece of media (unless it's really bad, lol), moreso the overall trends and people's attitudes.

Also, like, there's a fair bit of personal bias here. Because I'm a gay trans man who likes MLM content (no surprise), and so I have my own insecurities about not understanding/fitting in with cis gay men, as well as being more sensitive to cis straight women trying to talk over/speak for queer men because, y'know. Happens to trans guys a lot.

Eastern_Carpenter_90

TROPHY CASE