No illusions as to where it comes from - but I think there are worse things a community can do than draw lessons on how to treat each other when sober from how we feel on MDMA.

You're not wrong about the challenges of online dating, but I think it's worth noting that it's just a tool, not a requirement. I would imagine that most young people still meet their partners-to-be in the usual way, in person through mutual friends. But if that's not your path there are all these other things you can…

One of the best things that happened to me in my twenties is that I discovered rave culture, which is mostly a huge fucking mess but involves (or at least involved) serious endorsement of overt displays of affection. Not necessarily in a romantic or sexual way, but just telling your friends (who you obviously love,…

Ugh, asking people out is the worst. I mean, that said I think that discomfort, particularly for men, can sit atop something vaguely positive? That is to say, an overabundance of concern for another person's boundaries isn't the worst thing, and certainly better than the opposite.

I think it's mostly not true at all, but the one thing I'll suggest is that there's this phenomenon where people discover their bisexuality later in life and are moved to explore it - this can create problems if they're in a committed monogamous relationship.

I obviously have a different opinion/interpretation but I think we've maybe run out of productive topics for now. Thanks for engaging - I appreciate that you're approaching this thoughtfully, even if I don't agree with where you're ending up.

I wrote at a bit of length about the conflicting testimony last night further up the thread somewhere, I think I'll copypaste instead of retyping:

I'm responding to you because you're expressing some things I don't agree with but without the really squicky victim-blamey or abject-lack-of-sympathy elements that a lot of the posts here have. So let me emphasize that I respect that you seem to be coming at this from a position of good faith.

I think the idea that she's fabricating the claim to get out of her contract is pretty silly. There are many ways to attack even a well-drafted contract, but lurid allegations of sexual abuse aren't high on that list - it's a difficult case to argue, involves a lot of collateral issues and unpredictable judgments of…

Except… that's not what "impartiality" or "objectivity" mean? Like, when your two options are "sued her producer and risked her career because… reasons?" and "sued her producer and risked her career because he raped her", there's nothing unobjective about noting that one of these things is much more plausible. Or that…

Yeah, no. "Acted differently from Bill Cosby" is not the same thing as "is not a rapist". That's just nonsense - not all rapists will respond to being accused of rape in the same way.

Yeah, as a feminine-leaning guy I sorta have some of the same stuff? Like it's really hard to get over that kneejerk hatred of yourself for being girly (because it's so deep-seated that it's something you should be ashamed of), even if that's most comfortable for you.

Totally. That could be ordinary comic book disingenuousness, mind you ("Central City" "Gotham") - what I find notable about the Kansas thing is that it shows there are substantive as well as superficial differences. My working theory is that there aren't as many human cities on the coasts in the Steven Universe world…

Exactly. Sometimes people are just eight feet tall or able to fly or, apparently, have like 9 arms and no faces. I don't think this is an oversight or a sign of obliviousness - things are just a little different in this world.

The best thing about the American justice system is that its delightful prison comedies can go as many seasons as they'd like.

There's a fair bit of competition, but that might actually be my favourite episode of the show.

There's no issue with them just ending up buds, in my opinion. Joan's still in his life, after all, and Kitty can't be much older than him.

Clyde is going to express his feelings, whatever they are, in the manner of a tortoise of his generation. That might seem strange or silly to us, but we need to accept, within limits, that he's the best judge of his own emotional needs.

If she's going to be around I think it's important to his development that they get along.

Clyde looked happy. He was pretty savage with that lettuce, though. Are they feeding him enough?