feminist_geeks

tl;dr: old friend turns into horrible person with horrible worldviews.

Just had to defriend a girl on FB who I used to be good friends with because I responded to a post she made which said there's no reason for min wage to go up because 'those people get gov benefits the rest of us don't get, so why should they be rewarded even more? If min wage goes up, so should my salary because I actually work' She's posted a lot of things insulting people on gov assistance before (because mah tax dollars!!), and this was kind of the last straw for me.

So I responded that she can't have it both ways--the min wage can either go up and hopefully people can get off gov assistance, or she can continue to pay 'her tax dollars' to help support people who haven't had the same opportunities as her/are getting their educations/are victims of a dwindling job market.

Cue her and all of her friends attacking me from every side saying I'm too [insult for mentally disabled] to understand economics, that why should those 'uneducated, lazy people' be rewarded for work they're 'not doing', and that they don't 'deserve' a living wage because they should have been smart enough to get an education like the rest of them. When I pointed out that many people making min wage are college students, I was told that it's 'mommy and daddy's' problem and why should they pay for people who are living at home and getting a free ride. When I pointed out that I know many with masters degrees, I was told they should move to places with jobs (and they ignored when I explained how expensive it is to move to another state/across the country. Hell, it cost me 3k to move 20 miles). Any attempts I made to explain how the gov doesn't consider you financially independant until you're 25 and most college students aren't living with their parents past 18 were met with more venom, which concluded with her fiance calling me every name for someone mentally disabled in the book and writing a page long 'explaination' about economics that my 'poor widdle 7 year old brain could handle', written out in baby language. And somehow I was a bad person because I had time to post on FB during the work day (I'm a receptionist with a lot of downtime), but none of the other people responding were held to that standard.

Meanwhile, this person also uses a bark collar on her 3 month old puppy because they've 'tried everything in the book' to get him to stop barking, so I guess it was pretty silly of me to think she had any compassion anymore. Which is sad cos she's a nurse and used to want to devote her life to helping people. Guess only the people she deems worthy deserve help. She also used to work with me at a restaurant where she *gasp* made min wage while paying for her schooling.

I tried to block her so she and her fiance can't attack me anymore, but when I did, she didn't come up in the list of people with her name.

Rawr. I hate when people I used to be friends with turn into horrible, awful people.

/rant.

Augh what a toxic group of shitheads. D: I feel sorry for that puppy, too.

I feel for you. I'm going through something similar with a cousin whom I love dearly, but.... yeah. Whoa.

Oh dear lord. :( Everything about that was awful, and I can't IMAGINE a shock collar for a 3 month old puppy? That sounds all kinds of dangerous. I would report them for animal abuse, tbh.

People like that who just have ENDLESS excuses for why there should 'logically' be no poor people or people who need assistance just can't be reasoned with. We pay taxes NOT JUST to benefit ourselves personally, we pay them to benefit our country as a whole. I wish people would get that, they are not YOUR tax dollars. They are EVERYONE's.

Actually, I should correct the collar thing because I was wrong--they've had the puppy for three months, so he's probably five or six months, now. But still. There's no way that they could have tried everything to train him in such a short amount of time, and he's a puppy for crying out loud. She also said in her post that, since they put the collar on him, he's no longer "his happy, spunky self", but doesn't see anything wrong with there being a personality change. UGH.

:(

Negative reinforcement like that is super not the way to go with dogs. By 'trying everything' they probably mean different punishments for *when* the dog barks, when really they should be rewarding the dog for when it is quiet. 6 months is better, but I don't like the use of shock collars at all, personally...

Yeah, I don't like them, either. I'm pretty sure they're even illegal in some places for a reason.

She wrote a big long thing in response to my saying it was a cruel form of teaching that she a) takes him to an obedience class (which there's no way that he could have learned everything and be perfectly obedient in such a small amount of time), drives him there in her lap because he's so sad being in a carrier in the car (because that's safe), he gets the best food, etc. She said they got him the shock collar because he barks at company and gets under foot, almost tripping her fiance once. She didn't seem to undersand that being underfoot is just kind of what pets do (lord knows how many times my cats have tripped me--oh and that since I have cats I can't possibly know how to train a dog because I've obviously never had one since I don't have one now, or something) and that it's quite possible to love something and still treat it cruelly in some ways.

and that it's quite possible to love something and still treat it cruelly in some ways.

Oh gosh yes.. if the dog is getting underfoot, the best thing to do is get a wall-tether, make sure the dog is leashed when company arrives, and has something to occupy him with like a treat or a bone. They will bark and pull and such at first, but you just ignore them until they are quiet, then you bring the company over to meet him (rewarding him for the behaviour). It's very easy, it doesn't hurt the dog, and he won't get underfoot. Plus he's a puppy still and it takes *time*.

Bah, people make me sad. :( She prob likes Caesar Milan too.

I'm sorry you had to deal with that. :(

There comes a point for me where if I see too many things like that said, I just defriend people. It's not worth the drama. *Sometimes*, there's an occasional person I feel I can get through to, but most of the time, they are just too brainwashed.

*hugs offered*

Twice now I've had the same spot on my gumline above the tooth right in front of where one of my wisdom teeth used to be swell up, and I'd have it drained and go on a course of antibiotics and it would heal right up, but now it's happened three times and ugh, there's no predicting when that spot is going to flare up and a gingival flap to see what's going on is in order. And I wouldn't mind that, but this was the worst possible week for that to happen.
I'm already sick with a winter bug, and on top of that, I had a week long assignment as a substitute teacher that was prearranged with the teacher by personal correspondence. It wasn't just a random job I accepted and felt OK just cancelling. But today I went ahead and called in sick just for today and I need to see if I can go in tomorrow. I want to, and I need to make that decision by four. I'm not yet recovered, but hopefully, five extra hours of sleep and being spared from dressing up from work and driving that much will speed up my recovery.
This could have happened /next/ week, when I haven't shit going on, but nope, always happens at the most inopportune time.
The bright side is I'm getting my spot on the gum checked out today, and it hasn't gotten really bad and painful, yet. And my dental insurance covers the gingival flap procedure at 80%, and anything else that might be done. I'm just miffed. Actually a little scared too, surgery is surgery is surgery.
And I'm stressed about a paper I have to write due on Thursday and I'm stuck. It's on one's own philosophy of teaching. And I've got plenty to say, just...no idea of how to format.

write down your ideas in short phrases/words, and then group them under themes, like "format", "theory", "history", etc. maybe?

wishing desparately that personal computing technology was lightyears ahead of where it is now, but dealing with the limits as best I can.

getting kind of excited for the game of thrones season to start, despite myself. i always enjoy the critiques and discussions around the show.

A piece I was asked to write regarding HIV stigma in media and culture, specfically around the usage of the term "clean" to denote a negative serostatus.

http://geeksout.org/blogs/judahsleep/are-we-clean-yet

(link is safe for work)

Still chugging along on my Tolkien-esque Pathfinder campaign. My boyfriend has one Fantasy Flight's 3.5 OGL campaign setting book of traps and puzzles, which has given me lots of evil ideas for encounters that do not involve combat.

In this vein, I'm looking for cool ideas for this campaign, things that you've done in any table top RPG that you really liked. I'm changing a lot of things, so they don't necessarily have to be 3.5 or Pathfinder. Conversely, things that you've hated?

(I also just had a wonderful revelation, I'm writing my own versions of the Pathfinder races so my two friends that use Hero Lab on their laptops and are constantly on Reddit, etc at the table won't be able to do that b/c bog-standard humans will be less than impressive compared to the ones I'm making! Avoiding a confrontation, aw yiss!)