I Graduated High School In 99.

I graduated high school in 99.

There was a student at our school named Wayne.

Wayne was gay. It was obvious. He was unable to stay in the closet even if he wanted to. To make matters worse, he was also Black. From a bullying standpoint, that was not a great combo. Both Black and white students made fun of him relentlessly. He was ostracized from the only community that may have given him protection. Only us theater kids stuck up for him, but not to significant effect.

Wayne was bullied so much that at one point he finally snapped and attacked his bullies with a lunch tray. I was actually seated in perfect line of sight and just sat there chewing my soggy fries in stunned silence. It didn't even seem real as I was witnessing it. The image of him wailing on his main bully as the food on his tray flew off is permanently logged into my long term memory.

The bully he attacked had blood all over his face and went straight to the nurse. Other than superficial cuts, he was not injured.

Before the attack, Wayne went to teachers for help. He went to guidance counselors for help. He went to the principals for help.

He did all of the things you were supposed to do. No one helped him. They wagged a finger at the bullies and warned them to stop.

Wayne's lunch tray melee was the only thing that worked. His bullies stayed far away from him. But a week later Wayne was expelled and the bullies were given no punishment.

So... no.

No one in my school talked about being trans.

Because the only way to survive being openly queer was to bash people with a lunch tray.

Police supporters regularly admit that the police are the bad guys. They just don't care.

Stimming isn't enough. I need to violently vibrate out of existence

How am I supposed to differentiate between what I'm actually interested in and what's just a passing hyper fixation that I'll just waste loads of money on only to abandon in a few weeks' time?

Honestly, not knowing who you are and what you actually enjoy is exhausting.

Society's current feelings on veganism were totally planned. It was an entire smear campaign for the sake of the meat and dairy industry. I mean, my generation grew up on milk being shoved down our throats constantly. "Got Milk?" The history on that is pretty neat. There's a documentary. Anyway, meat and dairy (some of the largest industries in the world) will do literally anything to prevent progressive norms. We quite literally have all the technology, money, time, manpower, and resources to produce lab-grown meat that's (in every way that matters) the exact same in texture and taste. And we wouldn't need to kill a single thing ever again. We could do it right now. We could be Star Trek right now if we wanted. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

i've recently realized i've been using veganism as a litmus test for how willing someone is to engage a niche ideology in good faith.

how many mental gymnastics and whataboutisms someone uses to shit on vegans is such a good indicator for how bad faith someone is going to be about literally anything they don't completely agree with

i'm not even vegan, i just think people are so fucking abnormal about veganism