Which one got the narrative wrong and wanted to rape the homeless and burn children for fuel? And then got booed out of the convention for getting it backwards? Or have we not hit that timeline yet.

I mean it’s a niche thing, people who are really into piercings really like them, and those who aren’t into them tend to really really not like them, whereas some other fashion accessories are generally more universally acceptable even if not necessarily loved.

This isn’t an argument about abortion or gender affirming care you nut, this is about fashion. It’s not about “women’s bodies.”

Plenty of women express “disappointment” with the fashion choices men make and it’s fine. What’s the difference?

edit: my biggest disappointment here is people who can’t separate themselves from a stranger’s opinion and have to fight about someone’s preference whom they will never see, meet or talk to. Like, it just sparks this massive insecurity in people because it reminds people that someone might reject them for their choices so the response tends to be lashing out and being unhinged. And you see this on every end of every ideological spectrum, it’s a very human thing that we need to get better about. You all need to learn to SIT with the fact that not everyone will like you, your fashion, your taste, etc. Social media and discord has made you all get way too adapted to a world where you can choose to surround yourselves with only people who accept you blindly, so that you’re losing touch with how to feel about and cope with those who don’t immediately validate everything about you.

I quizzed you why you thought a normal, common expression of aesthetic taste became a sexual entitlement issue to you immediately, it was weird, it remains weird, you are weird, every comment makes you seem weirder about it, and I don’t think this is a healthy place for you to be engaging and tripling down on. I’m blocking you for your good as much as mine.

I’ve re-read your comment dozens of times trying to understand why this concept is lost on you, that it’s FINE to be disappointed with someone’s fashion choices, be it someone you know personally, or a generalized view of trends. It’s OKAY. It doesn’t MEAN anything other than, some people like things and other people do not. I too feel a sense of disappointment when people with otherwise pretty features accessorize it in ways that distract or detract from my preference. AND THAT’S ALSO OKAY.

You know what else? You’re ALSO allowed to be disappointed with how some people dress, talk, act or just about ANYTHING else that you like or don’t like. This is called being an adult human with values, taste and self-esteem.

Whatever cartoonish picture jumped into your head of some “alpha male” casting judgement on women he wants to sleep with, which I think you’re picturing here, that shit is coming from a place of insecurity or pain inside YOU, this is not an objectifying or entitled attitude to express or hold. Disappointment with someone’s choices is a normal and healthy thing that men and women feel and express all the time and sure it can become toxic in extreme circumstances, it’s nowhere NEAR that to just express not liking a thing.

What is your point? Did a billboard with the word “disappointment” fall on your great uncle and kill him?

Okay setting aside your clearly toxic and unkind attitude that is betraying what this is really about, some personal issue that is making you seeth, why is the word “disappointment” triggering YOU so hard?

I would be disappointed if my date comes home with me and takes off their shirt and they have a tattoo of Sonic the Hedgehog on their chest. Because I don’t want to look at Sonic when we’re together, does that make a lick of fucking sense? Do you understand that people have consensual relationships and preferences for their partners?

What does random women he has nothing to do with having piercings have to do with him?

Are you not a native English speaker? Do you understand that people can give opinions and critique of things they don’t like without it meaning an expectation that someone is going to DO something for them? You immediately made some random, innocuous comment about someone’s aesthetic tastes into an issue about entitlement and I assume implications about sex? Don’t you get how fucking weird that is? It betrays something on YOUR mind specifically that nobody here is talking about.

Do you think people shouldn’t have fashion preferences? Do you think humans can’t or should not have feelings about things? Every comment you make here just makes it weirder.

No you went on a rant about if op is “entitled” to those women. That’s just a fucking weird take from someone talking about disappointment in a fashion choice that people choose. Don’t reframe your weird comment.

I’m not really sure who likes them other than the people who get them and other people who like those specific piercings for whatever reasons.

It’s wild how insanely defensive people get about their piercings and body modifications though, just read through this post or any post like it on reddit.

Like, chill out you freaks. If someone doesn’t like your fashion choice, unhinged rants and attacks aren’t going to make someone magically start loving metal accessories stuck in your soft parts.

Bro is expressing distaste in a fashion accessory, why you so bitter and taking it so hard? You ok?

If I die and find out the universe really works this way, I will renounce all of existence and opt out. I rather an eternity not existing over living in a stupid children’s book universe of weird arbitrary rules about who gets to do what and go where through these systems of hierarchy.

And here I am over here, an agnostic absurdist, just laughing at the silly monkeys.

Could we start discussing credible strategies to reverse this situation, or at least improve that number somehow?

I say this constantly, and everyone nods along happily when I say it, but almost nobody does it. What is it? It’s getting involved in your local politics.

The federal government, the US congress and senate and all the executive branch… they’re all supported and propped up by powerful institutions within the states that got powerful because nobody paid it any attention and still don’t. People get elected to represent us who run without opposition and then we wonder why nothing seems to change.

If you get involved with knowing who in your neighborhood, your school district, your city, your county and your state represent you, and then challenging that representation in any way you can, from actually running all the way to just getting on those horrible neighborhood forums and holding yard-sales to get to know your neighbors.

GET TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS. Jesus, this country is terrible about this one huge thing that could change everything, which is reforming communities. We scream and cry how bad the world is and make ZERO effort to make it better by forming support systems within neighborhoods. I mean fuck, most suburban neighborhoods have nothing else to do, might as well have some bake sales and yard sales and jogging groups and other things to help get to know each other, right? Or has all our cynicism completely overshadowed any possible chance of ever forming friendly communities in the US?

Why would anyone live there?

The international perception of America is far, far stranger than how the USA really is. Like everything. If we were to go by perceptions of other countries alone by media and memes and news reporting, I can point to a LOT of places that would beg the question, “why live there?” but for the majority of people here, it’s a peaceful, expansive and free place to live. You just have to fit into the select population that gets those benefits, which can look like different things in different parts of the USA.

This is why the US is still seen as the “shining beacon on the hill” and why US currency is accepted anywhere in the world. The US has massive problems and we have that little issue with being you know… the actual evil empire and all that. But it’s still vastly ahead of many places in the world so asking why anyone would live here is as ignorant as if I were to ask why anyone would live in the UK because I read stories about some of the terrible practices and laws there.

It’s very hip and cool to say “USA BAD” online, but most people don’t really feel that way. That’s a deeply internet attitude and a lot of the time you see people living here complaining about it the same way they complain about their job. They hate it, but wouldn’t trade it for the alternative.

I used to fantasize about doing this.

When it got to a point that I was making careful plans for how to effectively remove all traces of my existence before walking into the sea or something, I realized that it was probably not a good thing that I was fixating on this “fantasy” and how attractive it was becoming, so I went to a nice little family mental health clinic in walking distance.

I was diagnosed with depression, PTSD and general anxiety disorder. A few years and a few rounds of therapy and medication later and I’m… still struggling. But at least I’m not planning my exit. There’s a lot to live for, but you can’t see it when your brain starts running away with your mental narratives. Don’t ruminate, don’t fantasize. Get some help and do something new with your lives.

The works of Roger Penrose have shown that it’s conceivable or potentially even provable that at the very largest scales of time and space, there is no meaningful difference between the accelerating “cold” end of our universe and the collossal expansion that began the universe as we know it, and in fact those two states are perpetually cycling, birthing new universes from the explosion of old ones. This is based on the idea that when there is no more physical mass in the universe, you can look at the universe from a reference frame that only looks at the geometry of the energy expanding through space and it’s identical to the beginning states.

I would recommend PBS Spacetime youtube channel for a lot better explanations of conformal cyclic cosmology than my feeble mind can try to relate.

How do you think all the stuff managed to get there in the first place?

You’re still thinking like a meat-monkey. There are stranger states out there than one can imagine, and that’s not hyperbole. There was no causality before expansion, because there was no meaningful interactions or spacetime in which interactions can occur.

You’re always going to have a hard time imagining this, because again, you are a human. We all are, none of us can imagine states of the universe without time and space.

I’m going to immediately distrust the motives.

Additionally, the data is self-reported surveys with questions like “Have you ever been contacted by someone from a company or corporation?” and… yeah? This part shouldn’t be surprising to any platform that allows private messages. And “Have you ever seen someone promoting a product?” and most people are going to either shrug or already have a strong opinion, it’s not very scientific for actual data on the actual traffic from bots and corporate shills, more how the human users feel about the platform.

I would much rather see an independent investigation from a technical point-of-view, which tracks the comments and timing of user comments to determine how many are actually bots just quietly gaining karma with innocuous comments, or how many are just programmed to go to certain subreddits at certain times to push a narrative.

You are so cool for being able to point out political ideology you don’t like, you’re cool.

edit: I also love how I just said “nazis and sexists” and this clown goes “Oh yeah, the left is bad too!” Bruh, doesn’t that say something right there that you assumed it was a political attack?