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This is great! Thank you so much for compiling these resources. I've bookmarked it for reference. Please don't delete it!

Quote me saying that. I didn't.

Nice bait, though. Someone who's not paying attention to the conversation might have been fooled by it.

CW: Grim content

I've thought about this, and having worked in hospitals and nursing homes, I've seen a lot of people die, so it's given me some perspective.

My husband is the closest person to me by far. He also has a lot of chronic health problems. I suspect he will pass away before me.

The older I get, the fewer people I have in my life. In my 20s and into my 30s, I had a lot of friends, but little by little they've fallen off. I've got a couple friends in my MTG playgroup and one friend who I go longboarding with in the summer, but beyond that, I've pretty much lost touch with everyone. This only gets worse as time passes.

Best-case scenario is that I die in a nursing home or hospital, completely alone. Maybe my nieces and nephews might visit sometimes, but there's no way I'd ever see them frequently, nor should they feel compelled. I'll be old and confused in a strange scary place, with people talking in that condescending baby voice that I saw a lot of CNAs and nurses use. If I'm still able, I can play video games or something up until the end, but I have reason to suspect I have the beginning of Parkinson's like my dad, so slim chance of that. I'll just die staring at the ceiling, in a completely emotionless void.

Worst-case scenario (most likely) is that I get put in a nursing home but evicted for being too poor. Then I'd just die faster out on the streets or something, or in a shelter. And come to think of it, this might actually be the preferred scenario.

Either way, I'll certainly die alone and unloved.

I have a book about this, and I think it's good to plan ahead.

I'm also too scared to read the book because I struggle with suicidal thoughts, and I fear I might make the decision too soon, when I'm in fairly good health.

It sounds to me like you're a good person. The people they're talking about are the ones who may have stopped hating, say, gay people -- but who have redirected their bigotry toward other marginalized groups like trans people or Palestinians.

In my opinion, there's effectively no such thing as a good or bad person -- it's the words and actions that count. No matter what you've done in the past, that's over now.

This! One of the most disgusting trends I've seen are people misappropriating queer symbology to try to queerwash their genocide of Palestinians. They don't care about us anymore than they care about the children they're murdering.

No one person can represent an entire culture though. That's why it's on us to learn how to be respectful.

For example, someone from Mexico might be just fine with offensive Hispanic stereotypes, but that doesn't excuse such behavior. You can't just ask a random person for a pass, like what? Even asking for something like that would be utterly tasteless lmao

But cultural appreciation is not what is meant by "cultural appropriation." Cultural appropriation is when it's done in a disrespectful manner.

I grew up with some utterly racist experiences in school -- the feather "headdress" and cardboard tipis, the sombreros on Cinco de Mayo, etc.

I wish I'd had someone at the time to explain why that was wrong.

I'd check these.

To me, the term "cultural appropriation" refers to things like schools having kids make chicken feather "headdresses" to "celebrate" Native American Day, or wearing a religious symbol in a disrespectful way. Even though people like the person in the post can be annoying, I think it's still progress that we're able to have these discussions, and I think it's too bad that for many people the takeaway seems to be "cultural appropriation is never problematic." I'd take the person from the post any day over someone who thinks they're immune from criticism when they unintentionally engage in behavior that truly is disrespectful.

I'm a bit of a nerd about longboarding and also building Commander decks in Magic the Gathering.

I wouldn't say I'm an expert in either case, but I'm really interested in trying different setups and also seeing people discuss their own experiences and builds.

Oh, that's too bad, in that I'm not currently a bird.