The banality of evil is not the sociopathic double-lives of evil people.

The banality of evil is not the sociopathic double-lives of evil people.

The banality of evil is not the sociopathic double-lives of evil people.

It sounds to me like you really have your shit together. It can be tremendously difficult to balance the hate for someone who hurt you with the pity you feel for that person because of the high likelihood he was also a victim of sexual violence. But I also think that balance is key to surviving (not just for huge…

Um, I don't know. 16 is old enough to know what kind of harm that's doing. And sending out naked pictures of your girlfriend is really violent. She can't erase those pictures; they're out in public and uncontrollable by now.

Yeah, I guess we just disagree about the root of bigotry. Or, about the perceived root of bigotry. I certainly understand that bigotry comes from fear about the threat to their group's dominance (obvi). But I think that most people aren't capable of understanding that, and so they say "I know that this is true because…

Stop with the logic-mongering you saucy minx!

Eh. I think it might be more about an 18 year-old kid and his or her parents, not about gender. I mean, besides the fact that the gender of the letter-writer is unclear (it could be a daughter, not a son), if it is a male letter-writer, then the fact that he's able to use the word misogyny correctly, and recognize it…

But "the court" that isn't coming up with end results that are 50/50 isn't a person, it's an amorphous social structure. So you can't ask "the court" for the reason for the inequality, you have to figure it out in other ways.

Yes, but we all have only so much energy, only so much time we can spend empathizing with people in pain. I am sure that rapists have their reasons for raping, and I'm sure many of them could be helped and perhaps even convinced otherwise if approached correctly and educated and given compassion and so on. But I only…

I agree with your analogy. But I do think that there's a difference between a die-hard MRA/Klansman and someone who's increasingly attracted to the MRA movement/Klan. A die-hard isn't going to be convinced, and should probably not be engaged. But someone who's moving in the direction of die-hard but hasn't yet reached…

Schwyzer makes the same point you do—at some point, it's too much to deal with and cutting him off is the only reasonable response. But most people aren't going to X their fathers out of their lives without at least trying to do something about it.

To be fair, going on antidepressants made me stop being a zombie. I was so overwhelmed with sad that I just shut off emotions and reacted to everything with horrible, miserable apathy. Then I started taking my crazy pills, and started having emotions and acting like a person again. It was awesome. It's still awesome.

Ooh be careful. Possums are one of the main carriers of rabies!

The kid who threw the tantrum—in the red striped sweater, who got a Hello Kitty shirt—seems like a total basket case.

Thanks for the protip, guy.

It's just, in your first comment you say that if one person'shouse is saved even though she hadn't payed her fees, then nobody would pay their fees (because everyone who lives in the county has no sense of responsibility). Then in your second comment you say that people who live in the country have bake sales to help…

She wasn't actually being violent. And I'm pretty sure she wasn't planning to punch him even if he had said yes. I think it was a joke. She was making a funny haha. One of those jokes that also has a point—like, how absurd is it that you people (cops) are arresting people for being violent when I'm the one suggesting…

I think her point was the chuckle, not the trawling for attention. And I don't think she ever actually intended to smack a cop.

Wasn't there some darling of Project Runway who used to call people tranny? Or something about Hot Tranny Mess? But in an affectionate way, right? I didn't watch that season but I know lots of people who adopted the phrase "hot tranny mess" with absolutely no thought about what that word meant, or implied, at all.