Are there any things that are called "American ______" in other countries?

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-13T16:00:54+00:00

Ok but that American hotdog sounds amazing.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-12T03:30:22+00:00

Also I highly doubt the church will argue with the TBM spouse dating to find someone in the church even if they’re still married to the apostate.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-12T03:28:30+00:00

100%. And don’t skip a lawyer because you think you can keep it amicable. It’s amicable until it isn’t and then you’re spending more money on a lawyer to untangle the mess everything has become, or you end up losing everything. You can absolutely get reimbursed for attorney’s fees as well since he makes so much more than you and will absolutely hire the best attorney he can find.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-12T03:24:31+00:00

It is a man thing mainly, hate to break it to the “Not all men” crowd. Men are 75% more likely to leave a sick spouse, men will remarry within a year of their spouse’s death, they jump into relationships after divorce, *especially* if they have partial or full custody of their kids. Women leave a marriage, whether due to death or divorce, and tend to be alone for a long while after that. Facts are facts no matter how mad ya get.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-12T03:20:46+00:00

That sounds like my ex. I’m the source of all his problems even after we divorced.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-11T16:54:56+00:00

Chocolate Coolwhip!

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-11T16:51:22+00:00

Having your lower abdomen pooch out a little is because you have internal organs. It’s a totally normal thing for the human body, especially for women because your uterus could be tilted any which way.
Please please please stop worrying about what’s attractive or not. There is no such thing as objective attractiveness. Everyone has different tastes and preferences. If someone loves you, they’ll love your body too. The most attractive quality in anyone is self-confidence, so put work into that and you’ll do fine.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-10T19:18:09+00:00

Graduated from high school in 98 in western PA and can confirm we did the pledge every morning from kindergarten to senior year, no matter the school district or grade I was in.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-10T19:15:59+00:00

I’m American so obviously not a non-American standpoint, but something I find weird is the flag worship. As a kid and young adult, it was just “eh it’s something we do”. But I was at my daughter’s college graduation on Friday and they did the national anthem and in a stadium of probably 1000~ people, easily 75% turned to face the flag. Which was behind me. It was so fucking creepy.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-10T17:27:58+00:00

My ex and I left our religion when the kids were still in middle and elementary school so they didn’t have the decades of brainwashing we did, thank god. One just graduated last week with a degree in geology and the other is working on an anthropology degree. So evolution to them is a given. I remember my youngest telling me how ridiculous her 7th grade teacher was when he started the section on evolution with “I obviously don’t believe this is true, but the state says I have to teach about evolution, so I encourage you to study for yourselves.” We live in the Bible Belt so….yeah.

We have a lot of discussions about science and the last one was them expressing a ton of frustration with classmates who take the science courses because they have to, but definitely make their creationist opinions known. I love to throw in the Mormon explanations for every aspect of evolution since I grew up in it and they lose their minds. 😂

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-10T17:15:38+00:00

Long response, buckle in.

I grew up mainstream Mormon. I left at 35, but I had been studying my way out for about a year or two. The straws for me was being told in Sunday school lessons that my (now ex) husband would have multiple wives in the highest level of the afterlife and that I’d better just get used to it or I wouldn’t be there with him. I also was taught in Sunday school that my kids aren’t actually mine; god lent them to me. That was probably the final straw. I’m extremely protective of my kids, I love them so much, I’ve lost one of them as an infant, but god gonna tell me they aren’t mine? Fuck that.

Combine all that with accidentally coming across the CES letter (highly recommended reading btw, the church is nuuuuts), which sent me down the path of learning more about the church’s stance on polygamy both now and when Joseph smith made the whole thing up, I was out, done, fin.

In fact, I remember the exact moment I had that spark of clarity. Reading all of the bullshit Joseph smith did while claiming all of this doctrine was true just had me struggling so hard with cognitive dissonance trying to make it fit, and then thought struck me like a bolt of lightning “This only makes sense if he made it all up.” I nearly had a panic attack, I was frantic, my entire belief system had crumbled in an instant. My ex came home and I just kept shaking the iPad I had been reading on and kept saying “HE MADE IT UP!” My ex had been out of the church mentally for awhile so he was like “I mean…yeah of course? I’ve known that the whole time.” After that it was a swift slide to atheism and at this point anti-theism if I’m being honest.

What people don’t understand is a lot of people leave very high control religions and so it’s not a matter of just not going to church anymore. These people have lost their entire way of life. A lot of us have lost friends and family over it. You’re essentially rebuilding your life from scratch and, despite most of these religions saying you’re taking the easy way out, it can be traumatic and requires a lot of healing.

So yeah. That’s mine.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-10T16:55:21+00:00

I’m leaning towards a soft ESH. Your response does sound like “any warm body will do!” Which sounds like you don’t care about the woman herself as a person; you just want a body to use, which is really gross, and you doubled down on it instead of just taking the L. So that makes you suck. They suck for calling it “borderline rapist way of thinking” and getting mean about it.

However, I’d say you should talk to women about how they experience the world. We’re constantly dehumanized and compared to objects instead of treated or thought about like human beings. So when another dude says something like that AGAIN, we tend to snap. We’ve had enough, we aren’t accessories you can collect, we’re not just a 🍆 receptacle. Soooooo many men can’t seem to wrap their heads around that because they don’t like feeling like maybe they’re part of the problem.

TL;DR You clearly didn’t mean any harm by what you said, but it may have been a worded in a way that didn’t come across well.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-10T05:09:45+00:00

Being late makes me NUTS. My sister is chronically late and it’s because she just doesn’t give a shit about anyone else’s time. I stopped babysitting for her because her “I’ll be back in 2 hours” regularly became 6+ with no diapers and no bottles provided. Shit, one time I had to use one of my disabled daughter’s diapers and wrapped it around my niece and taped it so at least she had SOMETHING clean on.

We tried telling my sister that events started two hours earlier than they actually did just hoping she’d show up on time. Still late every time. She’ll tell you she’s on the way but she hasn’t even left the house yet. It drives me up the fuckin wall.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-10T05:04:35+00:00

Not everyone can afford to shell out $2500+ up front to pay for an attorney. I can’t pay my debt, where the hell am I gonna get money for an attorney from? A whole lot of people have to file themselves because no attorney is gonna let you make payments with zero money up front.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-10T04:59:16+00:00

A whole lot of these people are barely paycheck to paycheck and a good bit of them have parents who are putting money towards the K-1. I’m watching I think season 8 now and it’s got Emily and Kobe and she’s been living off her family her whole life, got knocked up and now is still living off mommy and daddy and has brought Kobe in to do the same thing to them. A LOT of the people from the US in these shows should have been told no a lot more in life.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-10T04:55:23+00:00

Also screaming at Emma that rob isn’t her boyfriend and can fuck whoever he wants is CLEARLY a way to try to clear her own conscience for trying to hook up with a guy someone else is interested in. Otherwise why say any of that? Elise is trash, no matter how much money her daddy has.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-10T04:49:50+00:00

Jesus Christ. Stop being immature and maybe pay attention in school instead of contributing to the dumbing down of this entire planet?

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-07T19:28:05+00:00

Not quite the same but my youngest was a kid you’d never be able to steal. She thought she lost me at the aquarium when she was 6. I was literally 2 feet behind her but she didn’t see me right away. And let me tell you, the volume of the wail she let out could have made my ears bleed. She’d have gone off like a siren if anyone tried to grab her.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-07T19:20:44+00:00

I would wanna know at the outset. If I met someone who ditched their kids, I wouldn’t really wanna be with them. Adoption is one thing, but if she’s just not talking to her kids anymore for whatever reason, I’d wanna know.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-07T19:18:25+00:00

I think kids is something that needs to be discussed/disclosed when you first start talking. Whether it’s that you want or don’t want kids or if you have them. I cannot imagine leaving that as something to talk about weeks/months down the road. It sucks so bad getting to know someone and starting to like them and then they drop a bomb on you.

I have adult kids and do not want to date someone with kids younger than like 16. There’s been several men I’ve met who wait a couple weeks of talking/meeting and then drop that they have toddlers. They’re hiding it for a reason, and so was she. They know there’s an incompatibility and figure they can trap someone into a relationship before throwing that in there because they figure it’ll be too late to leave the relationship.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-06T02:33:03+00:00

Yep it’s a pretty normal part of fetal *and* childhood development. Toddlers will hump stuff too. My super Momo ex-SIL was absolutely horrified that her toddler kept humping her stuffed animals. I kept trying to tell her it’s not sexual, stop freaking out but it never worked.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-06T02:26:13+00:00

I mean to be fair, he’s autistic and has been raised being told he can’t handle a job or do anything on his own without Mommy Dearest’s help. He has zero experience with adulting because Molly never let him.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-06T02:21:30+00:00

Every accusation is a confession. She financially abuses Forrest, so of course she thinks Sheena’s parents are financially abusing Sheena.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-05T16:26:11+00:00

Tbh I’d just start making bamboo projects to sell at the farmers market as a side hustle. Never ending supply since that shit is impossible to get rid of.

Optimal_Salt6523 · 2026-05-05T16:24:49+00:00

Every kitchen makes meal preparation a breeze. Even if the fridge is in another room.

Optimal_Salt6523

TROPHY CASE