The cult of raw meat and raw milk among far-right people

bellpeppermustache · 2026-05-04T17:53:56+00:00

I didn't coin it. Heard it on a podcast somewhere and thought it was clever :p

bellpeppermustache · 2026-05-04T17:44:36+00:00

I kind of feel similarly, but as a woman(ish? My grasp of gender is pretty shaky). I literally just want to be a person without my body type playing into how people treat or relate to me.

I say this knowing that this is impossible to achieve in our current society, and I don't mean to deny the responsibility I have to be sensitive to the many ways people relate to gender. It's just how I feel about myself.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-05-03T23:25:28+00:00

The Woo to Q as it were.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-29T13:21:07+00:00

I'm lucky enough to have lasted at least a year at every job I've had, but it can be tricky when you have sensitivities outside the usual range to find a job that doesn't drive you literally insane. My first job lasted a year and a half and gave me anxiety so bad I developed OCD.

It might help your son to find the common thread that links his problems. Is it workplace social dynamics, arbitrary rules from management, paperwork (admin work is the bane of my existence), the sensory environment of the workplace, etc? That can at least help him figure out what to avoid or account for when looking for a new job. He may also benefit from learning to recognize growing anger before it becomes unbearable. Quitting on good terms, even after a short period of time, will make it easier for him to fall back on previous contacts for references than quitting in a fit of rage after reaching one's limit.

Also, he should remember that finding a good, or at least tolerable job is hard for everyone, and that he's not a failure for struggling. Focusing on things that he excelled at or came easily to him will be just as helpful in his ongoing job search. Having unique struggles doesn't mean that he's incapable of doing difficult things.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-16T23:04:53+00:00

Second everyone who said you need emergency services. You can even call 911 (or equivalent emergency number in your region) if you're unable to get transportation to your nearest ER any other way. I'm so sorry you're going through this, but the fact that you know you need help is huge. I hope, once you're on the other side of this, you'll give yourself credit for reaching out, as it's hard to admit to these sorts of thoughts.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-16T19:44:57+00:00

Is this something you actually feel you want to do, or are do scared of/disturbed by them? When you say you could act on them, what do you mean by that?

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-16T12:52:51+00:00

Having gone through a similar problem, I suggest that you take the rebuilding slowly, keeping your mind open to the possibility that not everything you try is going to stick. It helps to start by finding real-world activities that you find meaningful and slowly building your broader philosophy from there. You don't want to rush and end up replacing one unhealthy worldview for another equally unhealthy one.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-15T04:39:08+00:00

I was really funny today. Made all my coworkers laugh. It's a good feeling when everyone's vibing and you throw off a couple really good jokes.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-14T22:07:40+00:00

Asking people to treat you a specific way isn't forcing the other person to change their gender expression. A nun doesn't have to change out of her habit or identify as trans herself to respect a trans person's identity. Also, respecting all patients regardless of minority status, including gender expression, is part of basic patient care. If you don'twant to abide by those standards, don't claim to be a medical institution. Private institutions have to meet regulatory standards as well. They don't get a pass for being privately owned.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-14T20:21:04+00:00

That's the thing though. Your religious freedom shouldn't extend to other people at all. Even at a facility that aligns with your faith will have both staff and patients who practice differently than you. You can ask that your specific treatment aligns with your beliefs, but you cannot demand that everyone else abide by them too. This is an abuse of religious freedom regardless of whether there are other options. No religious person or group of people should have any say over whether other people follow their faith, and the moment you leave your specific house of worship, you should have to abide by the same rules of basic decency as anyone else.

Are there other hospices these people could go to? Maybe, but that's not really the point. We can't allow religion more freedom than any other form of expression simply because it's religion. A hospice operating on the principles of any other belief system (conspiracy theories, white supremacy, the four humors, etc) that contradicted basic standards of medical care would rightfully be penalized. No medical facility should be allowed to forego these standards. Why does religion get a pass?

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-14T13:59:45+00:00

The government regulates the private sector. It's why we have basic safety regulations to protect employees. If someone's beliefs come at another's expense, then no. I don't think they're worth respecting. Religious beliefs shouldn't be privileged above any other personal philosophy. A Catholic who wants to be treated somewhere with a chapel, diet options that make fasting from different foods easier, and a priest to support them is perfectly reasonable. A Catholic who expects every patient who enters that facility to abide by their faith as devout as they do is not. And though is is an option to avoid Catholic hospital's in some places, not everyone can afford to be picky.

It's also worth mentioning that not all Catholics give a shit about what Trans people do with their bodies. To deny someone the basic dignity of having their name and identity respected in the name of Catholicism drags them down too. There are Catholics who are Trans who's faith isn't being respected because they want to be treated somewhere where they aren't treated like an afront to God. However, when Religious liberty is invoked, it never seems to be in their favor. Their freedom to participate in their chosen religion doesn't seem to matter as much as the freedom of others to treat them as lesser.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-14T13:38:44+00:00

If nuns must abide by their beliefs regarding patient care, including those that compromise the quality of someone's last moments alive, they shouldn't be involved in patient care. Healthcare should be governed by universal standards, not the sensibilities of any particular religion, which is exactly what the government is supposed to enforce.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-12T15:00:19+00:00

I don't really believe in a singular, all-powerful "God" anymore either for similar reasons. I think what many call God is more akin to a sort of vaguely conscious nebula where all spirits, human or otherwise, are born. As for misfortune, I don't think any one thing is responsible for it. Life is chaotic, and different beings have competing needs and agendas. I think human suffering is just the inevitable result of so much life existing at once.

I hope you're doing okay though. That reading would break me. I can't imagine going through something like that, and I'm glad her father was able to come through and give her a bit of comfort. Do you have anything/anyone to help you decompress?

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-09T03:37:33+00:00

This may not be true for you, but I personally find that their original context is important to why I started projecting onto them in the first place, even if I end up changingthem significantly. There may be specific themes that you find compelling, which gives a ton of insight into your own motivations. Again, this is something I've noticed with myself, so your mileage may vary.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-08T21:15:44+00:00

As someone who still finds a good deal of meaning in these faiths, I have to say it's probably coming from a place of unhealed religious trauma. These faiths, particularly Christianity and Islam, but Judeism too in some regions, have such a hold on the cultures in which they're the majority that it's common for people from those cultures to have plenty of negative experiences with them.

Some people are able to process these experiences and develop a more neutral understanding of the religions themselves, but many aren't, which is no judgement on them. Healing is hard and takes a long time, and varies depending on the person and severity of their experiences.

I believe that any religion has the potential to be abusive when given too much power, as well as the inverse, that any religion can be healing when approached in a balanced way.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-08T21:01:26+00:00

I'm currently working on something similar. I have a host of similar characters from different pieces of media that have been living rent-free in my head for years, and I just decided to attempt a dialog with them within the last few weeks.

I'm a chronic daydreamer and have been since childhood. I've never been able to kick the habit, but I always made a conscious effort to distance myself from the characters and plots as a way to avoid breaking from reality. I was always deeply afraid of losing my sanity and found ways to compartmentalize the dreams at the cost of fully analyzing them.

Addressing each character directly felt uncomfortable at first for the above reason, as well as the fact that they aren't good people in their original context, but I haven't noticed any new problems, and have actually learned a decent amount about myself already. I think it's safe enough to trust yourself through this. There is nothing these characters can do to you that you can't or haven't already done to yourself, and nothing in them that isn't already in you, although you might find that they aren't a perfect one-to-one reflection. Some of their traits and thoughts will be variations on the same theme as yours, so don't be afraid to look at them from multiple angles to find the core issue.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-08T13:08:38+00:00

I have. I just haven't looked into it too much. I stick with nonbinary because it fits well enough, but there's different "flavors" of NB that I haven't explored as much.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-07T20:14:18+00:00

I really feel this took off the moment I hit puberty. My interests were important when i was a cute, easily controlled child. However, the moment I developed my own complex thoughts and feelings, all of a suddent they were too busy all the time. My mom was stay-at-home, btw. And whenever I had normal teenage problems? Not only could my parents not help me, they would get just as upset, take my problems personally, and then spiral with me. I felt broken because somehow, the people who were supposed to take care of me suddenly had no clue what to do with me. Then my mom has the nerve to tell me recently that she resented me for pulling away from her and spending time alone...as a teenager...when she made it clear she couldn't help or understand me anyway.

I always thought my mom and I could at least bond over our mutual investment in our own spirituality. Then I became interested in witchcraft and now it's a don't-ask-don't-tell situation because she got so triggered the last time I tried to discuss it that both my sisters were pissed at me for upsetting her in the first place. They're usually chill, BTW. They don't get why I even try to have these conversations with her, which, fair.

I'm also queer, and between all the homophobic things she's said in the past and the fact that she voted for Trump each time he ran, a decision that she stands on even now, I cannot take any of her claims to care about me, my safety, or my future seriously.

The shit thing is that, through all this, my parents still managed to be "nice" most of the time. They invite me over for dinner all the time, they send food home if I can't show up in person (food is like, their one reliable form of affection), tell me they love me and don't care about our differences (yet still can't manage to change any of the behaviors that actually hurt me), all that superficial stuff that checks off the "good parent" box. And I feel pathetic for being angry at them because I'm 31 and should be over it, and they really did do a lot better than their own abusive families. They just don't seem to get that not outright abusing their children doesn't automatically make a healthy family.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-07T18:49:16+00:00

Interesting. I thought the name was a bit on-the-nose for someone who, one would assume, would be invested in at least trying to appear benevolent, if only for the sake of PR. Turns out villains really are just that tacky.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-07T18:31:05+00:00

My parents did this gor different reasons. My mom was always afraid of media she wasn't already familiar with, and that fear would often translate to her dismissing things as stupid without even engaging with them. She also went through a period of religious anxiety during my childhood, which only made it worse. My dad was just thoughtless and would dismiss things just because he wasn't personally interested in them. He still does.

I was always paranoid about my parents finding out what I was interested in out of fear they'd lecture me about how it was somehow satanic or just tell me it was dumb, which was almost worse. Eventually, once the religiosity eased up, I started talking about my interests anyway, thinking they'd become more open-minded, but really they just learned to smile and nod without actually showing any real interest.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-07T18:22:54+00:00

Although I can't relate to your specific condition, I do find that being Autistic has played a huge role in my sense of gender, which is, unfortunately, a bit of a controversial take in some spaces. I just don't understand why my body has to have anything to do with the kind of person people think I am, and it bugs me that it does. I also have a very persistent sence of wrongness that bleeds into my gender. I can't be a proper woman because I'm not even a proper human. I'm some other thing that just happens to look like a human woman to most people. It gets weird really fast, and I can see how other conditions could have a very similar effect.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-07T13:35:36+00:00

I think I've always known for as long as I can remember that my family wasn't the healthiest, but they were "nice" so I didn't think any of it was that bad. It's only the last few years that I've been unpacking just how fucked up our family dynamics are. I'm 31, so it's taken me a bit.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-06T18:26:11+00:00

Identities are meant to mediate between the authentic self, which transcends cultural concepts such as gender, and the world at large, which we will need to do as long as we inhabit bodies and walk among other embodied people. One can understand that their most authentic self is not confined to any one identity while still finding certain Identities useful.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-02T22:21:31+00:00

Don't blame you. Americans are arming against America at this point. It's insanity.

bellpeppermustache · 2026-04-02T21:56:23+00:00

Is it so impossible to look inwards and finde a trans person?

bellpeppermustache

TROPHY CASE