I'm doing a personal project regarding political discourse and how to improve it. For this, I need help. I want, in one word, what you think of the political Left AND the Right. Yes, I want your opinion on both sides, regardless of which one you identify as, if any. Please note that I want your opinion on the entirety of the Left and Right, not just their radical fringes. People tend to lump them all together anyways. Besides, I'd like some critical thinking on your response. It's not always so easy to describe a group that diverse, with such hazy edges.

If you're uncomfortable replying publicly for fear of backlash or reprisals, then send it to me in a note. I promise that I will not in any way, publicly or privately, link a person to their responses.

This is the final part of some research I've been doing to try to improve political discussion, change some minds, and maybe knock some dents in the rampant tribalism we've been experiencing.

To show my integrity, here are my answers.

Right: concerned
Left: optimistic

Explanations for those answers will be forthcoming once I finish my project.

Okay, so the story's moving forward... slowly. The Sci-Fi story was the overwhelming winner. Right now I'm choosing between making the main character kind of like Riddick (Pitch Black badass psycho killer pragmatist, not the angsty hero with a damsel-in-distress from CoR) or like Inuyasha ( Generally good-intentioned and empathetic, but just kind of a massive prick a lot of the time.) That's a problem for me to resolve though. I need to fast-forward my plotlines and see how each works out. I may actually discard both.

What I need help with is some smut. I want to write something to get the juices flowing(all over the place), but I can't decide what. Potential for free smut is in bold for those with ADHD and/or a reading allergy.

1. Human/dragon transformation. Massive size-difference, semi-nc(at first), feral love, big bouncy balls, musk, and some cum-inflation. This is a gift for  Narse so it'll get done regardless...just a matter of when.

2. Zerg transformation. VERY noncon. Could be human or any other character. Hell, give me some refs, I might pick one I like. This story will be darker, grittier, slimier, and will have some body horror elements. Of all the stories on offer, this one is definitely the kinkiest and freakiest. No gore or death though.

3. Somnophilia (sleep-sex) a daddy... something or other (again, refs welcome for characters)...wanders into his college-aged son's room and sees him face-down, naked, sleeping, helpless. Musk play, age-play, possible role-reversal. I know this probably pushes the most buttons, but it's also by far the most cliche. It's the burger&fries of my current ideas. Good, but something everyone has had a thousand times. Of all of the options, this one enthuses me the least.

4. College student touches something in the university exhibit labeled "do not touch." Shenanigans ensue. Maybe transformation, maybe unleashing some dominating entity, maybe all of the above. All I know is that it will be slow, excruciatingly pleasurable, and completely inescapable. Yet again, if you have any ideas/refs that you want to use in this story, just link it below.


So, let me know which idea makes you hard...or wet...or both. Just note that all these stories will be M/M or M/Mherm. I don't know enough about female climax (having never been near one) or the feelings illicited by stimulation of their bodies to be comfortable writing about them and sounding convincing.

Alright, my faceting is on hold until the rusty gears of the free market and the postal service grind their way to completion. As such, I've decided to focus on my novels. I just don't know which one to work on. I will give a brief synopsis of each below and ask for an opinion favoring one or the other. This doesn't guarantee I'll finish that novel first. I just have ideas for both and want to be somewhat productive. Count yourselves lucky. Absolutely nobody has gained such insight into my work prior to now.

Novel 1:
Fantasy fiction novel intended for young adults. Based in a world almost bereft of technology. There isn't a caste system per se, but your station in society tends to be determined by your access to useful skills. On top of that list is magic, which is broken into many different schools. The dominant species in most of this world is humans, but other races do exist. I don't want to give too many details, but there is war, bloodshed, treachery, and intrigue. Unlike in other such novels, the main character doesn't gain some ancient, incredible, or otherwise unbeatable power or artifact. He simply uses the skills he has along with his intellect to do what must be done. He lives in a country of relative high living standards and a lot of power. Slavery is illegal, equal rights to all sentient beings is ensured, and the land uses its status as an economic and strategic powerhouse to.enforce these standards on less than willing neighbors. A combination of newly unearthed magics, greedy, treacherous politicians, and a coalition with some of the foulest creatures in the world will thrust the main character into the unenviable position of being a key player in a war where he scarcely even understands what the full stakes are, or how many people's lives and freedom rely on him.

Novel 2:
Science Fiction all the way. Earth is now a carefully maintained preserve with very few human inhabitants. Most of the human race has moved to enormous space citadels or to a few suitable worlds for terraforming, all within a few dozen light-years of Earth. As is expected with human nature, these colonies have splintered into several factions, each at odds with the others, vying for influence and control. Unbeknownst to most of the squabbling leadership, two alien races have discovered the human society. One is benevolent, intending to uplift humanity, help us overcome the flaws evolution has ingrained in us, and make us a part of the galactic community. The other race is also benevolent, but they believe that humans are corrupt, evil, and dangerous beyond redemption, and therefore seek to purge them from the universe to save others from the inevitable chaos we will reap. Beneath all this is a secret society operating in all of the various human factions. They are aware of both alien races and their goals. They will do whatever it takes to make sure that the human race continues. The two alien races have a strict nonaggression pact, so they can only interfere. The race hoping to save humans has given this society extraordinary technology that they are to use to further their goals. The main character is one of these people. How he joined? Shady. The morality of his missions? Ambiguous. All he can be sure of is that he can be sure of nothing, including his comrades.

So, that's about as good a synopsis as I can give. Please let me know which one seems more interesting to you. I will work on both eventually, but indecision is preventing all progress. Your aid is invaluable. A shout-out would also be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Not even my mate or my mother have been given anywhere near this level of detail. I've been playing my cards very tight to my chest. It goes against my nature to reveal so much about a private project, so I'm hoping this will pay off and give me some direction.

On Sunday, I just agreed to make wedding rings for my cousin and his wife. They currently have...latex? Rubber? Whatever flexible material those cheap bracelet things are made of is what their current rings are made of. In a stylish camo pattern too (YUCK!) They aren't rich, so I'm not judging, but I can't let them go with that for who knows how long. I know anything I make will be far better, but my skills in faceting are novice at best. These will be their wedding rings...the most shown-off piece of jewelry. I know they'll love and appreciate whatever I give them, but I want it to be because of what it is, not just because of who made it and the sentiment behind it.

They decided on amethyst for both stones, which is good, because I have a metric fuckton of it. The band for my cousin's wife needs to be 18ct gold or better, since she's allergic to silver. I'll worry about the actual rings once the stones are cut. It's much easier to get a ring to match the finished gem than to try to cut a gem to match the socket on a ring. Thus far, I've chosen the cuts (square for him, round for her), selected the gems I'll be cutting, and as I type this, the epoxy is hardening the first stone to its dop. I'm going to need to pull out all the stops on this project and make sure that I do something they'll be proud to show off and I'll be proud for them to show off.

We seem to be hitting another exodus. Not sure how many people remember the previous ones, but every few years, something happens that causes a large number of people to leave the fandom. Every time this happens, the general attitude among those remaining is "No big deal. They'll be back." And that seemed to be correct. The furry community has been growing at a fairly consistent rate. Nothing seems to have really injured our numbers. The issue is that many of the people who left didn't come back. They said they were through, they disappeared, and they never came back. They were simply replaced. Other artists/writers/content creators stepped forward to fill the niches that were left open by those leaving.

"So what?" you may ask. "The community is still going and still growing. Why should we care if some people can't keep with the times and want to leave? They're probably not the type of people we want here anyways. It's probably just the Nazis and fascists, pedos and animal abusers, predators and bullies who have finally taken the hint they're not wanted and left." No, I'm sorry to say that's not the case, much as many people may wish it was. I'm approaching 31 years old, and I've been active in the furry community since I was 18. Many of the current batch of furries weren't even near puberty when I got here, yet somehow, in 13 years, the average age of the community has barely changed. Every few years, we have a large number of people who get pissed and leave, and most of those people are the older members of the community. That, along with the natural number of people who just leave because they're "getting on with their lives" or they've "grown up" means that the furry community is largely made up of, forgive the term, kids. Yes, yes, I know you 18-21 year olds are big, grown-ups now who know everything there is to know about everything, but to those of us who actually grew up largely without the internet, your generation is "the kids." I joined the fandom at 18 because, frankly, that's when I first got a computer.

Now, let's move on to why this is bad. It's bad, because the furry community has a MASSIVE deficit in maturity. The immature mentality and behavior of disturbingly high number of the people in this community is constantly a source of pressure that is pushing out many of the people who would be the actual source of some much-needed maturity. A paradox, it would seem. The truly alarming trend is that things have gotten worse, not better, in the past decade. When I first became part of the community, it was an open, accepting place that was accepting of the fact that different people are different. But that was when the community was made up almost entirely of Generation X and the older Millennials.

Now, it's time for me to be brutally, nastily, and uncomfortably honest, but it needs to be said. As of right now, the fandom is largely comprised of the last couple years of Millennials and Generation Z...also known as the iGeneration. It's called that for a reason. These kids grew up with technology. I got my first cell phone at 16, computer at 18. I grew up playing outside, and the good old NES and N64 were rainy-day entertainment only. The iGeneration, however, grew up jacked into the internet. They grew up exposed to more porn than I ever thought existed as a kid, making them more perverted and sexually aware. They grew up in an era of convenience technology, so they became accustomed to getting what they want very quickly, with minimal work or wait. They grew up texting, IMing, and with social media readily available, creating a freakish sort of hive-mind so mired in group think that they seem to lack empathy with anyone who doesn't fit into their "identity group." And worst of all, they grew up largely coddled. Society, led by a cohort of overly protective parents, protected them from everything. They were sheltered from adversity, so they're incapable of facing it. They were shielded from challenges, so they can't tolerate being challenged. They were hidden from stress, so they can't handle anything that applies stress to them.

What does this mean? This means that the iGeneration is tolerant to the point of deliberate blindness to those they "identify" with, but are intolerant to an almost freakish level to those they view as the "other." It means that they can't tolerate people challenging them on their views without seeing it as an attack. It means that when they're faced with something "problematic," they expect mommy and daddy (now replaced by mods and admins) to remove the source of the problem rather than dealing with it and growing from the experience. Basically,this means that the furry community is currently being populated more and more by poorly adjusted, intolerant, needy, dependent, borderline nymphomaniacs whose only solution to what they perceive as "problems" is to somehow, someway make them go away.

And then there's the other side...yes, you fucking know who you are. The people who got sick of dealing with this new batch of kids and decided to respond by poking every wound, triggering every neurosis, and doing their best to try to be as "problematic" as possible, simply to stick it back to the whiners. Funny how there was never really a big problem with Nazis, fascists, racists, sexists, and homophobes in the furry community until we became overpopulated with people who couldn't handle the existence of such things in a mature, rational way. I stand by my opinion that the overwhelming majority of these people are trolls, trying so desperately to "fix" what they see as weaknesses in the younger generation that they're causing more problems than they ever had any hope of solving, and now they're so addicted to milking the tears that they can't see that they've become just as bad as, if not worse than, the original problem they set out to fix.

Is there a solution? Yes, and no. The simple solution is for the trolls to just fucking stop (you're not solving anything, you're just making your targets feel more and more justified in their behaviors), and for the kids to grow up and learn to deal with the world. (Your generation is not unique in terms of mental disorders, being part of a minority, being bullied, or having people challenge your beliefs. You just don't know how to deal with it.) Unfortunately, I might as well say that the solution is waving a magic wand or wishing on a genie. Expecting a large group of people to suddenly realize the error of their ways and change their behavior when they've been brought up their entire lives to think they're incapable of being wrong is absolutely ludicrous. I'm sure most of the trolls will wise up and piss off...but there's an infinite and growing supply of trolls, so that'll be a never-ending struggle for as long as they get the tears they so desperately crave. I'm also sure the majority of these young'uns will grow up, learn something of how the world works, and will correct some of these glaring personality flaws that are admittedly not even their fault, having been ingrained by their parents and new technology we didn't know the consequences of. Sadly, by the time this maturing is finished, the "young'uns" will be the jaded furry veterans who are leaving in disgust.

It seems we're trapped in a never-ending cycle that is self-perpetuating. In order to stop it, we either need a profoundly mature, grounded, and open-minded generation coming into the furry community to help remove the high school atmosphere, or we need a profoundly patient, tolerant, and understanding group of older adults to remain in the fandom in the face of all the immaturity, hostility, and drama until the average age and maturity level is gradually advanced. Personally, I have little hope for either and little hope to offer others. I'd love for people to stay and try to change things for the better, but I know that I'm asking a lot. By the time people are in their late 20's or 30's, they usually have too much going on in life to be an internet babysitter for some of the most nightmarish charges imaginable, but despite all its flaws, I believe the furry community is worth trying to save.

As for me, I'm not going anywhere. I may be tooting my own horn, but I like to think that I am profoundly patient, tolerant, and understanding. I will remain and try to impart some reason and maturity to the community, futile though the attempts may be. Hell, it worked for Val (  cty_lover ) so it might work for some others.

Eight years ago, Val and I met for the first time in person at FurFright. It was the first time either of us had gone to a con. In spite of the fact that we started dating only a couple of weeks later, it was also the last con we attended together...until now. FurFright is now Furpocalypse, but this weekend the two of us are back in the same hotel where we first met nearly a decade ago. It has a pleasing symmetry to it.

This is going to be a copy/paste of a rant I made on Twitter. I feel it's important, and something that everyone needs to hear eventually. If it offends you, that probably means you need to take a long, hard look at your beliefs, the methods you're using to implement them, and whether there's not some sort of disconnect there.

Now, some people have seen me comment that the far left is just as bad as the far right, and that makes them hurt...in their butt, so let me clarify it to make sure the records are clear. When I said that, I did NOT mean that "People who hate Nazis are just as bad as Nazis." That's the interpretation of either a stupid person or a dishonest person. When I talk about the far left, I'm not just talking about Antifa, I'm talking about anybody who engages in a number of activities that are just as bad as those perpetuated by the far right. Examples: Using race, gender, sexual orientation, or gender identity as a means by which to judge, silence, or belittle a group of people. Using authoritarian methodology to force a puritanical viewpoint on others and then punishing those who speak out in any way, shape, or form. I'm talking about advocating violence to intimidate and silence those you disagree with. I'm talking about lying and manipulating to further your narrative. I'm talking about targeting individuals for attack simply for expressing a dissenting viewpoint...to name a few things. Both the far right and the far left do this. Both do it regularly, and have the sanctimonious attitude that it's okay because the "enemy" doesn't deserve to be treated any better than that. Both feel the other side shouldn't even be allowed to speak their views. So before you accuse me of being a Nazi bigot or Commie cuck, maybe you should have the courage and decency to engage me in a discussion rather than just blocking and hurling insults from inside your echo chamber. I attack both sides equally because both equally deserve it.

Believe it or not, I actually identify with the left. I'm a registered Democrat. I vote almost exclusively for Democrats. I was actually seen as a bit of a lefty extremist when I was just getting out of high school. My views haven't changed much, the left wing has just gone nuts. I've said it several times and I'll say it again; I'm more critical of the left than the right because I view them as my people. I want to see them succeed and flourish, not cannibalize themselves and devolve into a hate mob. This shit is getting way too toxic. If we keep attacking ourselves and excommunicating those who aren't "pure" enough in their ideology, eventually there will be nobody left. Donald Trump won, in large part, because people are getting disgusted with what the left is becoming and want to take it down. I've seen a lot of liberals suddenly become cheerleaders for Trump just because he's willing to kick the lefties in the teeth. If we don't want that bastard to win again in 2020, we need to change how we treat others and, more importantly, how we treat our own.

Oh, and just as an aside, I actually have fucking courage. I never block anybody. I'll meet any challenge to my views or ideology and have the stones to admit when I'm wrong. Who else can say the same? Not many. I'm here and waiting for anyone willing to test their "faith."

Links to the tweets are here in case you want to share them.
https://twitter.com/Albeon_Draken/s.....912851968?s=19
https://twitter.com/Albeon_Draken/s.....213733890?s=19

Ever since I first started masturbating when I was 12 years old, I used the infamous "death grip." Many of my friends have heard me bitching about the inability to achieve orgasm through any means other than my own hand. For years, I've just been resigned to being able to give orgasms during sex, but never get them. Recently, I've become dissatisfied with this idea. I'm now looking to, for lack of a better term, reeducate my penis. I've looked into how to do this and most sources say the same things.

Step 1. Go on hiatus from jerking off (1 week to 1 month depending on the source.)

Step 2. Start up again slowly. Only do it once or twice a week and only when I naturally get a boner (meaning don't induce one just to fap)

Step 3. Change my methods. Go slowly and gently, ALWAYS use lube (even though foreskin makes it unnecessary) possibly even try a fleshlight or masturbator.

Step 4. Resume sex and enjoy the fact that it's now fulfilling.


Seems pretty legit, but wanking is one of the greatest stress relievers in my very stressful life. I don't want to quit for up to a month, then cut down for a long period afterwards if this isn't going to work as intended. Does anybody have experience, warnings, success stories, or anything along those lines to help guide me through dick training?

 KumaHontosha is having some financial issues and wants to sell some characters. View his journal here. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8801168/

Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy just announced his retirement from the Supreme Court. He was the swing vote in most cases. With his retirement, he will be replaced by an ultra-conservative justice appointed by Donald Trump. That means that we will have conservatives in charge of the White House, Congress, and the Supreme Court, all smothered under Trump's cult of personality. Checks and balances are out the fucking window. The right wing will IMMEDIATELY begin the process of repealing same-sex marriage, abortion rights, and who knows what else. We're dealing with a pack of people who don't believe in Evolution, who think modern science is an attack on their religion, and who HAPPILY await the end of the world. I probably will be leaving this time.

The US House of Representatives just passed a bill called the “SITSA Act,” (which I will be linking in this journal) that is aimed at expanding the disastrous Drug War and vastly increasing the items on the list of Controlled Substances. It also gives sweeping enforcement powers to the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions. If passed, many currently legal substances, most of which are harmless, and some of which are highly beneficial, would be made illegal and punishable like any other drug. I am attaching the letter I wrote to my senators that clearly outlines my stake in this issue. I strongly advise everybody to contact their state senators and plead with them to reject this bill. Even if you don’t agree with my personal reasons for wanting it killed, increasing the size and scope of the War on Drugs is something everybody should want to avoid. It has been not only colossally ineffective, but it has been extremely expensive and has resulted in the incarceration of MILLIONS of non-violent offenders, sometimes for years or even decades in states with mandatory minimum sentences. Please, for the love of all that is good in this country, contact your senators and kill this bill.
P.S. Just to drive home how important this is, the new enforcement powers given to the Attorney General would make it feasible for the Federal Government to prosecute people for marijuana even in states where it has been legalized.

https://twitter.com/Albeon_Draken/s.....35282320773120

Bill:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th.....ext?format=txt

Letter:

Hello Senator,
I am contacting you out of concern for the SITSA Act that was just passed in the House of Representatives. The act would likely result in Kratom, a plant in the coffee family, to be scheduled as a controlled substance. The FDA has falsely been calling Kratom an "opioid" despite the fact that it does not have any opioid compounds in it. The plant does have some alkaloids that have SOME of the effects of opioids, notably analgesia, but it does not exhibit any of the respiratory depressing effects that make true opioids so dangerous. Many people, myself included, use Kratom as a safe, legal means of pain relief. I suffer from chronic pain. Over-the-counter medications like Acetaminophen and NSAIDs have little effect on me at safe dosages, and cannabis makes me violently I'll. Also, at 30 years of age, I am deemed "too young" to be offered more conventional pain management, as if the young are incapable of feeling pain. Right now, Kratom is the only thing that works for me. I know that my situation is mirrored by thousands of others across the country. Should Kratom be scheduled, I would find myself in the unenviable position of either seeking Government-funded disability to cover my greatly reduced capacity to work, or to seek a cure through more illicit means, such as heroin, a thought that frankly terrifies me. I firmly believe that making Kratom illegal will exacerbate the current opioid crisis, as those who use it to treat their chronic pain or to prevent relapse into their opioid addiction will be left with no recourse but illegal drugs. I therefore beg you to do everything in your power to try to block this bill in the Senate. Thank you for your time.

Yep, today is my 30th hatchday. My 20's are officially over. Kinda depressing, but I'm sure I'll live.

I'm currently stuck in a position in my life where I don't know what to do and have some important decisions to make. School has come to a dead halt. The combination of medical issues and needing to work a full-time job to support my household has made it impossible to give school the focus it needs to get good grades. I have several options, but the two most practical are:

1. I can keep doing what I'm doing and take the first available opportunity to go back to school, get my biology degree, then keep teching up to a Ph.D. This would take, assuming I started in the fall (something I have no idea how I'd pull off) about 7 years to complete.

2. I can take 1 more year of prereq classes at my local community college, then go into the nursing program. That would see me with a BSN in 5 years.

Option 1 is pretty much its own thing. Option 2 has some choices of its own.

1. I can become an RN, then use that to pay my way through my Ph.D. A part-time RN still makes about 4x more than what I make full-time right now.

-The main issue with this choice is that it will take for-fucking-ever. 12+ years. I'd say 15 is most likely. That would give me my Ph.D. at the ripe old age of 45. And
that's assuming everything goes well.

2. I can continue with my nursing education and become a Certified Nurse Practitioner.

-There are two problems here. First, I really really want to go into research. Second, Massachusetts is one of 13 states where NPs lack autonomy. There's currently a bill
kicking around to remedy that, so it may be a nonissue by the time I need to make this decision. Either way, it bears thinking about.

3. I can leapfrog from nursing into medical school and try to become an MD or DO.

-Again, I really, really want to do research. While being a doctor was my dream as a child, and I'm sure I'd be happy doing it, it's not my dream now, merely a viable
alternative. Also, time is a major factor here. It would take another 5 years to become an MD or DO, and that doesn't include the time it would take to specialize. By
the time I finished specializing, I'd be back in the mid-40's range.

4. I can just stay a nurse.

-Very unattractive option. Nurses have very little autonomy and are bound by the decisions of the doctors over them. In my 6.5 years at the hospital, I've seen many,
many nurses frustrated by stubborn doctors who spend 5 minutes a day with the patient and think they have a better idea what's going on than the nurse who's
working with them all day long. I don't think that's a frustration I could handle gracefully and patiently for my whole career.

I really don't know what to do, but I need to make a decision pronto. Time is already an issue, and spending years hovering indecisively won't help it. I'm leaning quite heavily towards RN to Ph.D. RN is something I KNOW I can do. I already know most of what an RN needs to know from my work experience and training as a Medical Assistant and Phlebotomist. I'm just so caught up by how long it'll take me.

HALP!!!

Alright folks, this is important. A few months ago, I made a journal regarding how people treat those with whom they disagree. The standard practice seems to be immediate disconnection and demonization of said person. I don't do this personally. I only block/unfollow people who are being overtly and consistently abusive. If there's just an ideological difference, I maintain lines of communication. Here's one fact that people don't seem to understand: You can't change hearts and minds if you don't speak to anybody who doesn't currently agree with you. Insulting and demonizing that person by using generalized buzzwords (SJW, cuck, Nazi, snowflake, racist, sexist, socialist, communist, etc.) will not only fail to win them to your view, it will harden them against it. That's why things are currently so polarized, both inside the United States and out. It's like over the past decade, the entire world population has slowly become sociopathic sperglords.

The reason I'm writing this journal is because I see an opportunity to start rebuilding some of these burned bridges. The FCC decision to repeal Net Neutrality was fantastically unpopular. A huge majority across all political and social spectra are adamantly against the decision. This is common ground that can be used to start reuniting the split populace. I'm firmly of the opinion that constructive criticism and debate are healthy and necessary. If someone holds a belief that I disagree with, I will criticize it and debate the issue with them to try to win them over to my point of view. I also invite and encourage anyone to do the same to me. Right now, that's not happening. Lines of communication between the two camps are cut and nobody is willing to even stop insulting all the <see above buzzwords>, much less hold a civil discourse over the focal point of the disagreement. The Net Neutrality repeal is a chance for people who would otherwise hate each other to work together on something they all feel strongly about. I encourage everybody to jump on this opportunity. Set your petty squabbles aside and start learning to work together again. Fail to do so and things will only continue to get worse.

This surgery hurts like hell. Still planning on transcribing and uploading that story between today and tomorrow. It should be up no later than Friday. I already have 2 chapters done. I'll upload the first, then give it a week or so before uploading the second.

My last journal was a bit rambly, so I've written a bit of a clarification to reduce any misunderstandings.

I feel that I should clarify my position a bit. I think that more unity and cooperation is something that is vitally necessary in today's society. It seems like everybody is of the mentality that "You either agree with my every point or you're a garbage human being who deserves to die." There is also a pronounced inability to distinguish criticism from an attack.

In the USA, things are particularly volatile. Democrats and Republicans hate each other. Progressives and the Alt-Right hate each other. Every group and counter-group hate each other with a vigorous passion. What ever happened to civil disagreements? Why is hate and venom so abundant? Often times the people who disagree in such a way are only disagreeing over one thing, or one aspect of life. This disagreement, however, is enough to cause people on BOTH sides to call their opponents all sorts of heinous things and try specifically to undermine everything they say or do, regardless of whether those things are also disagreeable.

Let's take the example of SJWs and anti-SJWs. The argument is simply that SJWs want everybody to be treated equally under the law, while anti-SJWs feel that the means to which SJWs are willing to go to ensure equal treatment encroaches on freedom of speech and expression. While there are legitimate points to be made on both sides, the result is that both sides (for the most part) now hate each other and not only refuse to have anything to do with one another, but also actively try to sabotage each other when/wherever possible. This takes the form of deplatforming, letter-writing campaigns to try to cost each other employment, attempts at social stigmatization, etc.

The thing that both sides don't realize is that they likely agree on FAR more than they disagree on. In spite of this, you will almost never see them working together towards their common goals. Instead, rather than pooling their considerable resources to try to effect positive change, they spend most of their time and effort attacking and railing against each other. You see the same with Democrats and Republicans, progressives and the alt-right, and just about every other dichotomous group.

It's for this reason that almost nothing is getting done in this country, and everything that IS done is immediately undone if the opposing group takes over.

My argument is that we should focus less on what makes us different and more on what we have in common. We should also be less picky about who we are willing to work with. I know for a fact that there is a large group of LGBT Republicans who tend to be shunned and viewed with distrust by both the LGBT community at large as well as by Republicans. I also know for a fact that there are a large number of people who identify as anti-SJW who share many political views with much of the SJW movement. Instead of working with these groups to achieve common goals, everybody seems to want their own exclusive clubs.

The prevailing mentality seems to be "If you are not 100% on board with X, you must be the opposite of X." If you're not Antifa, then you must be a fascist. If you're not a feminist, you're a misogynist, etc. No nuance is allowed or explored, and no fraternization between opposing groups is allowed, lest you be labeled a traitor.

The point I am and have been trying to make is that for our society to move forward, we NEED to work together. Just because someone disagrees with you in one respect doesn't mean you can't work with them on the items where you DO agree. For our country and civilization to move forward, it's imperative that we learn to cooperate in spite of our differences. We should disagree and work against each other where necessary, but otherwise be willing to work together where our goals align.

I strongly disagree with Trump supporters, yet I will happily work with them, or even Trump himself, if they start working towards a cause that I see as important. The same goes for any group with which I normally take issue. I dislike ideas, not people, and if the people who normally espouse ideas I dislike come out with one I like, I'd be 100% on board with working together with them. I strongly encourage everyone else to do the same. I think you'd be surprised how much you might have in common with those who you normally would call your enemy.

Recently, I've seen a lot of people jump on the opportunity to call other people bad. Trump is bad, Nazis are bad, SJWs are bad, socialists are bad, etc. The problem comes from how we define the word bad. People use it like it's one thing with one meaning, and if your particular group or ideology doesn't fit with your definition of bad, then it can't be bad. Allow me to shed light on the situation in hopes of educating some people and, perhaps, engendering some empathy. Only through empathy can we ever pave the path towards unity and working together again.

I will give you four scenarios, and I want to know which one is "bad."
1. You steal money from your grandmother, money she needs for medicine, to fund a drug habit.
2. You approve a budget for a small business that gives yourself a huge pay raise, but causes several people to be laid off, losing their livelihoods.
3. You are a firm believer that your race is the best race and deserves its own homeland, where all other races are ejected, either by law or military force.
4. You want to protect people from discrimination and unequal treatment, so you push for laws that limit the free speech and expression of others, tightly regulating these activities based on the very subjective definition of hate speech and discrimination.

All of these things are arguably bad, yet each one stems from a different type of person and each one has a different result.

In the first example, only the grandmother is hurt, but you're also betraying the trust and bringing harm to someone you supposedly love and care for.

In the second example, you're just doing your job and looking out for number one. The fates of those beneath you who are now without employment aren't your problem. They found employment once, surely they can do so again. Regardless, you are threatening the lifestyles of these people for no reason other than you and the other executives want more money.

In the third example, nobody is actually being hurt. No jobs lost, no money stolen, the only thing hurt is feelings...except you're perpetrating an ideology that could one day lead to people being hurt on a tremendous scale. Even if that's not your intention, that is still a potential outcome of your actions.

In the final example, you're trying to protect people. Trying to ensure that everyone gets treated equally, that they can all live and love however they want and not have the narrow, dogmatic views of others forced upon them. In the course of achieving these noble goals, however, you're willing to erode away at free speech and expression in the fear that, while exercising these rights, someone, somewhere might be hurt. Unfortunately, in attempting to make the world a more inclusive place, there is collateral damage that can corrode the foundations upon which western civilization was built.

Every single example listed above can be argued as bad actions that are undertaken by bad people. There are also rationalizations for each of them that try to downplay how and why these actions are bad. Unfortunately we've reached a point where people are too willing to see the bad while being completely unable to empathize with the reasoning behind these actions. Our culture is currently in the process of tearing itself apart, while what we need to do is focus on pulling together. Rather than focusing on that which divides us and demonizing those who don't fall in line, we need to focus on that which we have in common and start working together. If we come together on those things upon which we agree (of which there is a surprising amount) and agree to politely and respectfully disagree and work at cross-purposes on those things upon which we disagree, I think we'll see a massive change for the better in how our world functions.

Everybody needs to drop the sanctimonious holier-than-thou attitude. Spend more time understanding the opposition and the humanity behind them and less time complaining bitterly into various echo chambers about how terrible everybody else is. Failure to do this will see our civilization divide itself into billions of nations-of-one.

P.S.
If there's one overwhelmingly important point to be made from this big text wall, it's this: Nobody agrees on everything, but everybody can agree on something. Using those areas of commonality is the basis for a functional, cooperative society.

Just a quick update for those of you following my thrilling documentary, All the Ways a Body Can Fail. Today we will be going over the current state of my body.

Nervous system: Still having periodic fuck-ups, including dizziness, pain, numbness, and tingling. No real change.

GI system: All the old problems are still there. In addition, apparently there's some sort of difficulty absorbing Vitamin B-12. My B-12 levels are currently at 60, with normal being 250-800. My neurologist is in a bit of a panic over it and we're trying to get a massive injection of B-12 to fix the problem. Trouble is that all the entities capable of supplying said injection are being slow and uncooperative. In short, SN:AFU. Literally nothing is working as it should.

Renal system: Still producing stones at a rate that would make a large quarry jealous. Nobody has yet figured out why or how to stem the tide. Pretty much BAU.

Musculoskeletal system: My back is still a nightmare of arthritis, bone spurs, degenerative, herniated, and bulging discs, unnatural curves, and narrowed nerve conduits. On the bright side, when I die, theylre thinking of using my spine as a model for a roller-coaster.

Sensory systems: No real change. Eyes and ears functioning below and way below standards respectively, nose and tongue functioning above and way above standards respectively.

Integumentary system: Still have that inexplicable recurring rash on my hands. It spent over a year gone, so now I have to look forward to at least 9 months of it being back. Itches like hell. Other than that, nothing new.

Endocrine system: Parathyroid is still overactive for no apparent reason. Not sure what the problem is or why it's pumping out too much PTH, but we're working on it.

Reproductive system: Since my body doesn't want me taking the easy way out via suicide, it's leaving this one alone. At least I get to fap my troubles away.

That just about wraps up all the bullshit going on with my body. Not really getting better, but aside from the pernicious anemia, not really getting much worse either, outside normal wear and tear. Still spending most of my time either working or recovering from working so I can be ready to work again. Hopefully something gives somewhere to break this pattern so I can write again.

I just started playing Warframe a couple weeks ago and I think I've finally found a suitable replacement for WoW in my life. I've also noticed that there are a lot of the furry folk on that game. If anyone wants to do stuff with me, go ahead and add me. AlbeonX is my username.

edit: I play on PC. Not sure if it's cross-platform or not.

Everybody's getting their tails in a knot over the Nazi furs at BLFC. I'm willing to bet that 99% of the people who identify as "Nazi furs" aren't even Nazis. They're just a bunch of edgelords who are irl trolling trying to get reactions out of people...and as always, the furry community is thrilled to oblige, simultaneously feeding off of and feeding into the drama. Fascism is a problem that needs to be addressed, but the best cure for the dipshits that are clearly just trying to offend people for attention is to not give them attention. The more offended and angry you get, the happier they are. In righteous indignation, people are giving them exactly what they want, thereby ensuring they do it more. Ignore them. Pretend they don't exist. Don't look at them, don't talk to them, don't do business with them, and they'll go away to find some other source of attention to feed on.

I think it's great that there is a place where people can support their favorite content producers, I really do. I'm anticipating problems in the near future though. I've been noticing more and more artists placing a large portion of their content behind paywalls and ceasing to do commissions altogether in favor of focusing on patreon work. If that's their choice, so be it, but allow me to paint a picture. Most furries aren't the most financially stable or fiscally responsible lot. That's okay when it comes to commissions. If a furry splurges on your art then regrets it later, you still get to pay your bills after all. Patreon, on the other hand, is a monthly commitment that can be quite easily turned off if it's becoming burdensome. I assume most people will do what I've done, which is to pick 5 (or less) of their absolute favorite creators and support them on patreon, while regretfully leaving behind all the rest. I'm gay 100%, so that means to get the most bang for my buck, anyone who produces female content, anyone who draws fetishes I don't like with any frequency, anyone who only puts out 1-2 pieces a month gets the axe, no matter how much I like the art they make that DOES fall into my interests. The more artists who go to patreon, the more you're going to see those few monthly dollars most people have available for such things be spread around. Eventually you'll get to a point where many artists will be making less off patreon than they would be through commissions. If they attempt to leave patreon, they may find many of their subs, tired of getting nothing but censored patreon teasers, have left, necessitating bringing them all back in again. I've already avoided watching and unwatched people whose whole content is patreon only.


Some possible solutions.

1. Make only a part of your art patreon exclusive, while the rest becomes public (with a delay.)

2. Continue to offer public commissions and post them publicly upon completion.

3. Focus on quantity rather than quality in terms of patreon supporters, and allow basic access for $1-2 or whatever the equivalent is in your currency. If an artist who didn't meet my strict criteria offered those prices, but still put out work I enjoyed, I'd support them.

Most artists don't like or tolerate people criticizing their patreon usage, and rightly believe that they have a right to earn an income off their work. I agree, and this isn't a criticism of using patreon. By all means, use it. Just don't use it to the exclusion of all else. If you fail to keep your options open, you're making things needlessly difficult for yourself if the one path you've decided to focus on should fail.

Please only comment if you've read the whole journal. Butthurt comments trying to rebut a point I wasn't making because they've only gotten 3 sentences in will be ruthlessly shamed for inability/unwillingness to read.

According to multiple people, I'm a bad person for believing that we shouldn't commit acts of violence on people who we don't agree with, such as the KKK and neo-Nazis. The supposed "logic" behind this is that these groups believe bad things should happen, so we need to preemptively get them before they have a chance to take over a country and enact the final solution and/or start a race war. Now I'm no legal expert, but the last time I checked, we didn't punish people before a crime was committed. I was also under the impression that we didn't criminalize racist thoughts or words, only actions. I made it clear to these people that I was not referring to those who actually acted upon those beliefs, just those that hold the beliefs. I pointed out that there is a minority of people in these groups who have actually done any wrong, and most of them are only guilty of being unrepentant assholes. That doesn't seem to matter. By my reckoning, if we applied this 'logic' of "get them before they get us" to everyone everywhere, the human race would quickly go extinct. The lgbt community, apostates, Wiccans, and adulterers would all have reason to attack those who follow the Abrahamic religions, because their belief system says that the aforementioned parties should be put to death, and a very small minority of the group has acted on those beliefs. It would also mean that ALL non-Muslims would have just cause to attack ALL Muslims, because Islam says that very bad things should happen to the non-believers, and a very small, but very notable, minority of Muslims act on that belief and kill people. It would seem that my belief that such a policy is pointlessly destructive, unjust, and lacks any sort of nuance makes me a bad person. I'm just wondering if there are any other "bad people" out there who believe as I do, or if I'm just an anomaly.

Should I purchase a vendor slot at Furpocalypse and sell my pretty pretty shiny shinies? Would there be enough demand to make it worth it? I know I could make quite a few before Halloween.

My faceting machine is in transit and will arrive Friday morning. I'm both relieved and excited. Be on the look out for posts with my cut gems in them.

I'm copy/pasting this directly from a gemology forum I'm a member of, so the "haven't been active" thing is in context.

/QUOTE

I haven't been very active here in the past couple months. That's because I still haven't received my faceting machine. I ordered directly from Graves back in January and was given a due-date for the machine of February 20th. Starting the week after that, I've been calling every week asking about what was going on. If I'd been told that there were some major issues and that it would be a long time before I got my machine, I'd have been unhappy, but ultimately I'm a patient and sympathetic person, so I would have waited. Instead, I've just been getting the runaround. The first answer was that it was being sent "tomorrow," then that the mast wasn't calibrating, so it needed to be fixed and would be sent "next Monday," that being the 6th of March. I called again on the 13th, and was told it was being sent out that day. On the 21st, I was told that it was being shipped and I would have a tracking number by the end of the day. I called again on the 27th to ask about the tracking number I'd never gotten, and he sent one...which still says that UPS hasn't yet received the item. My most recent call was the 3rd of this month, when I was told that there were more problems with calibration, but now it was fixed and would be sent out "Tuesday" which I assumed to mean the 4th, but I suppose I could interpret to mean the 11th if I'm being charitable (something I'm getting tired of being.)

As I said before, I could tolerate major delays if I was just treated with honesty up front. Instead I'm forced to conclude that the gentleman I've been speaking to is either a pathological liar or has absolutely no idea what's going on. I've been holding off on taking any action thus far because I figured that it would be faster to just wait for Graves to get their mess in order than to wait for a refund, buy a machine elsewhere, and wait for them to build/ship it. I don't really think that's the case any more. I don't think I'm going to have my money stolen, but I can easily see myself trapped in this endless loop of platitudes and lies until a year has passed.

I'd like some honest opinions on what I should do. Should I start the process of getting a refund as soon as possible, should I wait for a certain amount of time before doing so, or should I just hold out on Graves finally delivering the product I paid for? If I should go for a refund, where should I look for a machine of similar quality and price to the Mark 5xl, which cost me about $2000 including the lap package. Everything I've seen has been 50-100% more than that and I frankly can't afford it.

Thanks for your time.

/END QUOTE

Needless to say, I don't really expect anybody here to give me recommendations on what machines I should look for in lieu of my first choice, but I'm sure a lot of people have experiences with deadbeat artists who do the same thing with commissions, so any advice is appreciated.