In a ‘Tibetan Buddhist’ cult in Taipei, every time a member leaves or says something bad about the group, they are called ‘psychotic and disturbed’. Apparently everyone who stays is ‘sane’ and everyone who leaves is ‘crazy’. Every single one. Every time. No exceptions. All crazy.

I see this is a pattern among such…

4.) If, when you ask questions, you get angry defensive responses, get blamed for asking, get punished for asking, or get nonsensical or empty answers (“I’m not interested in that question, I feel like it puts me in a defensive posture when I have nothing to defend really” is both nonsensical and empty) or platitudes…

My goodness. Reading this reminded me so much of a group I know where I live in Taiwan, and their “guru” (a Taiwanese man who claims to be the reincarnation of an 11th century monk), actually called ‘The Master’ or ‘Master Wang’, sounds a lot like ‘International’. And they recruit young, lonely foreign expat women,…

As a permanent resident of Taiwan, go ahead and ask how Chinese treat Taiwanese even when vacationing in Taiwan itself :(

And China doesn’t even control Taiwan!

Too many actually believe it, though.

Sometimes I meet more thoughtful folks. Over lunar new year we went to Sri Lanka and met a Chinese couple who, learning that we live in Taiwan long-term, asked us what the Taiwanese really think about China as they know the news their own government allows won’t be accurate. I told…

*cry*

And the Taiwanese HATE it because they know they can’t win (right now) but they are absolutely not willing to ever be a part of China.

Also as a permanent resident of Taiwan, thank you for actually caring and raising awareness of the situation Taiwan is in. Too many people forget that a liberal democracy and…

Yup.

I live in Taiwan. Permanently.

China (the PRC government at least - obviously there are non-awful things in the country as a whole) is awful. Just the worst really.

I wouldn’t watch anything that’s been twiddled with to appease those assholes in Zhongnanhai.

Or cast a Japanese American actress (or a Japanese actress who can speak English).

Or just don’t mention what country Tibet is supposed to be in. It’s not like China doesn’t know Tibet exists - they rule it after all. And then don’t cast a white guy as Dr. Strange.

That doesn’t make it totally valid, it means you’re whoring out artistic sensibilities for a market, which makes it a worse movie, which means fewer people will be interested in seeing it when it gets critically panned. I mean, I realize it’s Marvel so who cares about its artistic merit, but I’m not going to see a…

I don’t see how the cops could have known what race the three girls were, so I don’t see how “they’d have rescued three white girls” is even remotely a reasonable take on this.

A murky pond with sucker mud, grasses, weeds, and being Florida, probably alligators and water moccasins too. It wasn’t a clear water pond with a rocky bottom.

YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH ABOUT THE LOVE OF MY LIFE

I don’t always want extra warmth. (I live in the subtropics FWIW)

I don’t always use them. But then 3/4 of the year (maybe 4/5) where I live all you need is a sheet or light blanket, our duvet gets very little use.

*Would* repeat it. Implying they don’t, generally, because they probably won’t come across it again. Whether or not you would, I think, is different to whether or not you intentionally seek it out even after seeing it inadvertently once. “I would do that again if I had the opportunity” is not the same as “I think I’ll…

And she can have her opinions (and not realize that she thinks she sounds accepting but actually she’s not) but if she publicizes them, she’s not free from criticism of her words.

Freedom of speech for all!

Oh Christ.

I don’t care about her, and I don’t watch American Idol. But I hear this a lot and I think -

What the fuck is there to “not agree” with? Would you go up to an Asian person and say “I don’t agree with your Asian lifestyle?” Would you go up to a man and say “I don’t agree with your male lifestyle?” “Hey…

I’ve got one.

I live in Taiwan. Republicans have in recent decades been much more strongly pro-Taiwan and in favor of defending Taiwan against a legitimate Chinese threat (and it’s real, we’re not talking phantom WMDs here, they actually do just want to annex Taiwan against the wishes of the Taiwanese people) than…

Also this only works if you are likely to agree with the rest of the platform, which I don’t.

Could women look at fiscal issues besides those posed by having children (because I agree that abortion *is* a fiscal issue)? Sure. But their other fiscal platforms are also terrible, so what does it matter?