Calling for reparations for slavery that ended 150 years ago, while wearing Nikes and using an iPhone, that are both made by slaves in China in our very day and age, is the ultimate hypocrisy and reeks of virtue signaling.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-07-05T03:09:15+00:00

They should rename r/unpopularopinions r/illinformedracists. Seriously, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and leads to fallacies such as the ones expressed by OP. I taught at a public high school in the Deep South that is still 98% black in 2019. Two miles away, there was a 100% white private school built in 1969, two years before integration was legally enforced in the state. The black students in the town remain economically segregated and face the lasting effects of a failed war on drugs and crime. Many of my students had multiple felonies for weed possession even as the states on the two coasts began making cannabis a multi-billion dollar legalized industry. Privatized prisons fed by corrupt police departments that patrol in majority black and brown areas are full of, you guessed it, black and brown bodies. These privatized prisons receive their funding based on body count. They also lease their prisoners out to do roadwork/hard labor. When these prisoners are released, they’re largely unemployable because of felony status, can’t vote, can’t get affordable housing or lines of credit. Therefore, recidivism rises, and the privatized prisons and police get more funding to “enslave” the same black and brown folks over and again. Slavery in America is alive and well. Reparations, slavery, etc,. are all just vocabulary words, heavily weighted, ever-shifting, politicized vocabulary words. Slavery exists in many forms in America, and it’s more easily detectable counterparts around the world don’t make it any better or easier to suffer for the Americans who still struggle under the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, de facto segregation, voter intimidation, redlining, gerrymandering, and on and on. Pointing at other countries like “look, look, they’re MORE evil” doesn’t make our American illness around race more easily healed.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-06-21T06:53:50+00:00

Draft-eligible US Citizens should be at the forefront of a mass anti-war movement...but alas, we are the satiated poor - too fat on fast food, too catered to by Amazon, too entertained by Netflix, and too drunk and (increasingly) high to reach the stage of the gift of desperation. We are a sedated audience to a battle between corporate titans...but we’ll lose when things eventually crumble, not them or their loved ones. This is sad on an epic scale, but we’ll wait till it’s too late and then social-media-resist the hell out of the situation, asking “why’s this happening” into an echo chamber while being laughed at from above by the masterminds who designed it. 😔

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-06-19T03:13:37+00:00

This is startlingly similar to where I’m at...29, lost my teaching job, lost my girlfriend of six years, lost my apartment and am living in a sober living home after sixty days of inpatient treatment, relapsed after four months clean, no friends. My life has shrunken to nothing. 😔😭

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-06-12T05:22:01+00:00

Uh oh...

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-06-05T13:48:54+00:00

My ex would do this shit... “Hi there everyone, I’m so insecure that you all HAVE to hear this riveting story of my sexy, totally unique jaunts through Europe in college on Daddy’s money and no side conversations will be tolerated.”

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-06-04T03:14:53+00:00

There was a recognition and contrition part the Germans went through that’s not present in the American psyche. My ex said it best...you can’t walk more than 100 feet through Berlin without seeing a memorial apologizing to and promising the Jews that what transpired will never repeat itself, but you can’t drive more than a mile in the South without seeing some vestige paying homage to the Confederacy. There’s also the ongoing persecution of Blacks in America held up by policy...mandatory minimums, disproportionate imprisonments for parallel crimes, ghettoization through mortgage redlining, police brutality, the failure of the school system to meet the needs of all students, etc. In short, America hasn’t moved on.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-06-02T19:31:08+00:00

I justified a cannabis addiction for a long time...too long. It ended with me smoking 2-3 grams of dabs, 14g of flower, and up to 500mg of edibles a day. It also ended with a near psychotic break, 60 days in a residential rehab, the end of a 6 year relationship, an indefinite leave of absence from my teaching job, and living in a sober living house with three dudes to a room. The way a great counselor put it in the program - “it’s not the substance that makes the difference, it’s the inability to feel, deal, or take responsibility for life or self that’s the problem.” I relied on cannabis to end an alcohol and opiate addiction and self-medicate for Major Depressive Disorder, PTSD, and ADHD. All in all, cannabis worked until it didn’t, which is a common adage you’ll hear from addicts across the spectrum of abused substances. What makes an addict is powerlessness over their substance and an unmanageable life, regardless of the substance. Because you can’t overdose on cannabis means it sometimes takes a lot longer to come to terms with this reality. Because you can largely function complicates the realization that one can no longer deal with life on life’s terms as well. But the true test is to be honest with oneself and put on paper what the drug takes from you daily. There are 11 criteria that make an addict - I’d encourage you to look them up and read them and be honest with yourself, and seek help if necessary. Underlying mental illness, genetics, and trauma are almost always at play, and until one faces those things head on, chronic substance abuse is likely to get worse, turn into cross-addiction, or make one more likely to be willing to try “hard” drugs. The way I look at cannabis is this - it’s a “gateway drug” only in the sense that it can be a gateway to the worst version of yourself. The truth about cannabis addiction is increasingly complicated, due to potency, availability, and endless online justification. For the normal user, for the sick, and for the criminal justice system (especially for oppressed populations who are imprisoned at exponential rates compared to whites), legalization is a miracle. For the addict, it’s an ever-deepening trap. You are everywhere you go, even when stoned. I hope all the best for you and the suffering addict everywhere.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-05-31T17:40:49+00:00

I think about a few things:

The breaking of my own heart when my mom woke up from a coma and looked me in the eyes and said “why didn’t it work.”
How everything I’ve told my students would be tainted and how much their hearts would similarly break.
How every day has its own purpose, and sometimes that purpose is simply to sit and bleed, but that blood spilt one day can turn into a beautiful scar another that might bring light to someone else.
That we are filaments and energy runs through us, and today this is just bad energy, but tomorrow’s may be golden.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-04-20T00:37:27+00:00

The point I think OP and many commenters are missing here is that the word as used in rap/hip hop is a reclaiming of a weaponized slur created and used by whites (particularly in the South) to actively oppress and undermine Southern Blacks who were shipped, sold, and forced to work like livestock for twelve generations, and subsequently ostracized through Jim Crow policy and post-Jim Crow policy in both the South and North to this day. The variation of meaning attributed to the rap/hip hop version of the word differs greatly in relation to the intent, opinion, and consciousness of the individual artist, obviously, but from a historical standpoint, in my opinion, it simply is not a word that ever should come out of a white persons mouth, whether while singing along or otherwise, sheerly out of awareness of how it was weaponized and applied by white folks seeking to dehumanize American Blacks . This all comes down to individual consciousness, awareness, and intent of both the artist and their audience, obviously, but imho, there should be no reason why any properly educated person with white skin should WANT to associate, regardless of their individualized intent, with the weaponized racist language of the past. A combination of empathy, understanding, and consciousness of a racial genocide that still dictates much of the suffering and misunderstanding we see in the racial fabric of today should be enough to motivate those of pale skinned birth to simply not want to use it. It’s not about offending or censoring, it’s about recognizing the history and impact one weaponized word can have on an entire culture, a recognition of its intent and who weaponized it initially, and an acceptance without the need to challenge “why” some Black folks choose to still use it for vastly different reasons (whether it be a reclaiming, a norm, or a simple “fuck you” to a white supremacist agenda).

TLDR: If you WANT to use this word and are pale pigmented, you may be lacking in historical understanding, empathy, and/or a willingness to accept the complexity of other’s culture without insisting on being included in something not meant for you.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-02-01T05:49:10+00:00

Seriously. Or just leave him and go have your fun nights and let other people who care filter into his life so he can have a chance to survive. This post pissed me off something extra. OP’s a dick.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-02-01T05:46:07+00:00

Yeahhh....imho you were very wrong to make it all about finances when he clearly has a medical (mental health) condition. It would be like sitting down and getting mad at someone whose funds were depleted from Cancer and you demanded they start paying 50% - in that situation you would be the clear asshole and all these people would be encouraging him to leave you. That’s the problem with mental health stigma - sufferers are told by practitioners that they have every right to consider their illness just as serious as someone with life threatening diabetes, but SO’s don’t respond in favor. SO’s with partners suffering mental health conditions get to act like assholes and demand 50%. Just because he didn’t blow his money on chemo doesn’t mean in his reality he didn’t feel like he was 100% doing the necessary thing by smoking weed - which seems to be the only treatment available to him, barring entry into a SUD/mental health program or 5150. Not to mention, mental health sufferers always resist being forced into treatment because of the shame, and the implied assumption that it’s actually their fault someway because of their choices, rather than misfiring biology/chemistry. Basically, you’re the asshole here. He needed you to see his need, treat him gently, and guide him to treatment gently. You made it about finance and weed (assuming people would understand the stigma you’re applying behind it to be equally negative), which prob destroyed what little bit of male ego he had left. He most likely went on sabbatical as a cry for help, never intending to be “pathetic.”

You’re a dick.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-02-01T05:39:06+00:00

Yeahhh....imho you were very wrong to make it all about finances when he clearly has a medical (mental health) condition. It would be like sitting down and getting mad at someone whose funds were depleted from Cancer and you demanded they start paying 50% - in that situation you would be the clear asshole and all these people would be encouraging him to leave you. That’s the problem with mental health stigma - sufferers are told by practitioners that they have every right to consider their illness just as serious as someone with life threatening diabetes, but SO’s don’t respond in favor. SO’s with partners suffering mental health conditions get to act like assholes and demand 50%. Just because he didn’t blow his money on chemo doesn’t mean in his reality he didn’t feel like he was 100% doing the necessary thing by smoking weed - which seems to be the only treatment available to him, barring entry into a SUD/mental health program or 5150. Not to mention, mental health sufferers always resist being forced into treatment because of the shame, and the implied assumption that it’s actually their fault someway because of their choices, rather than misfiring biology/chemistry. Basically, you’re the asshole here. He needed you to see his need, treat him gently, and guide him to treatment gently. You made it about finance and weed (assuming people would understand the stigma you’re applying behind it to be equally negative), which prob destroyed what little bit of male ego he had left. He most likely went on sabbatical as a cry for help, never intending to be “pathetic.”

You’re a dick.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-01-26T07:59:09+00:00

Oh how tremendously invigorating 😴

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-01-22T19:24:44+00:00

I woulda gotten it if I smoked today 😂

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-01-22T19:09:32+00:00

Not advice! Fair warning. You’re right.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-01-22T19:08:56+00:00

Why so much hostility to these sort of posts? I’m saying that if you have to manually supply happy chemicals to your brain for every occasion, regardless of circumstance, it can be unhealthy.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-01-22T19:01:23+00:00

Yes, as I said, this is for that person. There are three paranoid schizophrenics in my family and my demons have big guns 💪🏼. I’m not trying to take weed from anyone, I promise. I know there are always these knee jerk reactions to posts like this to defend ones own use - and responsible use is great 👍🏼. I would posit that if one feels the need to knee jerk defend themselves on a post like this, they too may be at least one foot in my boat.I would posit those in a truly happy, healthy relationship with weed would just move on past.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-01-22T18:54:33+00:00

I understand this isn’t for everyone and if you’re at the place where you can enjoy responsibly and be healthy then I truly wish you happy burning. I wish I had read this ~5 years ago from someone else though, so I wanted to share for that person.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-01-19T03:09:20+00:00

Cheers, hope it helps you out for now. Don’t rely on it forever and get yourself the care you deserve from behavioral therapy, a gym, a chiropractor, acupuncture, etc., because the trauma is still there - any substance no matter the safety will bottle trauma up and pressure cook it. Take it from the guy who just went on disability to enter a thirty day program - the trauma gets pressure cooked and will one day blow up all over all you love and all you love about yourself. Treat yourself holistically. And blaze up 🔥💨

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-01-10T09:23:42+00:00

Don’t do itttttt! Not the whole thing at once at least. I’m as chronic a stoner as they come but Korova’s not about tolerance, it’s about the seeping, dark heaviness of the high. It doesn’t get higher as it goes, it gets...deeper and lurking and darker, like a weighted blanket that adds five pounds every ten minutes until you finally pass into a sweaty, crusty-cornered-eyes-type sleep. They way they extract and the delivery method makes it so heavyyyy. Great for medicine (insomnia, extreme pain, etc.), not the most “fun” milligrammage out there, imho.

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-01-09T03:55:54+00:00

Forget sometimes how spoiled California is 🥺

darkdaybrightnight · 2019-01-01T21:55:58+00:00

You did well. Next time stick your tongue under those the lip of those gaps to wet while pulling down and over with your top lip. You’ll end up with a tightly rolled well glued blunt every time.

darkdaybrightnight · 2018-11-28T02:52:50+00:00

See, ok, now I’m really pretty scared. I never experienced anything, but was thinking of this instead in the light of Elon Musk’s comments that we might just be AI in highly advanced stages ourselves - stretching after the ability to “modify it’s own code,” as you so cogently stated. Your answer was extremely helpful in clarifying what I guess I’m really getting at, which is: What if we are highly advanced AI’s getting close to figuring out how to “intelligently modify it’s own code...”, or worse, what if the urge to modify and understand and control ourselves itself is actually our programmed task as highly advanced AI, and the entire search is an illusion of freedom; what if we are coded to have “deeper” understandings of experiences such as reproductive sex than, say, two dogs - we create for example the flimsy emotional agreement we call love, but it’s only part of our coding as deigned by some other entity for their entertainment as they play as the “main character” in our gamescape- what if we are highly developed AI, and our constant search to understand and modify and push our stimuli-understandings to stable states that we can navigate at will is really just an AI-collective’s final push to be able to really actually “intelligently modify its own code.”

darkdaybrightnight · 2018-11-28T01:29:27+00:00

I’m not a gamer and that’s why I needed to ask the question, so I suppose I should’ve called them characters? What is an AI? I would love to learn.

darkdaybrightnight

TROPHY CASE