Wanting tighter measures to ensure that immigrants being imported into this country aren’t extremists does not equal fear of the Hijab or thinking that all Muslims are terrorists.
If “tighter measures” were all they were proposing, I bet more people would be okay with it. But Trump has called for a complete ban on all Muslims entering the United States. Newt Gingrich (not a nominee, but a prominent figure in the party) announced we should give “every person here who is of a Muslim background” a Sharia test.
You really do believe it works that way, don’t you? If you’re going to tell people to stop using a broad brush, you gotta put yours down first and lead that fight from the front
I believe the VP candidate just now said it perfectly. You can vote ME FIRST, or you can vote Families and Children first. Then look at the track records of the candidates and decide.
Selfishness (and selflessness) past a certain point IS a mental illness.
What is the collective noun for people who stand alone, unyielding and above everyone else? A reflecting pond of Toxic Narcissists? A tower? An Echo Chamber?
Glad to see someone else out there that’s cool with the spiderbros of the world. I always try to give them a helping hand when one is encountered indoors.
I am a firm believer that the enemy of my enemy (mosquitoes) is my friend, so I’m a fan of spiders. You’ve just described a common interchange between me and one of my daughters whenever a spider is spied in the house.
I’ve come to terms with my octopode tenants. They provide a great service when tiny bug season sets in, here in the woods. We’ve spoken about how they are to behave and not to behave when I am in the shower.
I was working bush regen a while ago on a site that was steep and slippery enough that you had to use your hands and move very carefully if you didn’t want to tumble a hundred metres onto the rocks below.
Then we realised that we were working right on top of several hundred funnel-web nests…
My friend is an arachnophobe and she called to my attention the strange and unfortunate fact that every single damn article discussing arachnophobia tends to come with a stock picture of a tarantula or somesuch.
So true, and something I hadn’t considered. It’s irrational and inhibiting (well, that’s the definition of phobia, ain’t it?), but it’s the eyes, the legs, the hair – I can’t take it. To elucidate: At our old house we had an old, dilapidated outbuilding. A friend said it looked we were brewing crack back there. My response: “Oh, hell, no. I wouldn’t do that. There are spiders in there.”
Personally I’m not even ‘anti-spider’ per se; I’m anti- any bug that’s as big as a human fist, no matter which branch of the insect family it may come from.
Before this conversation encourages anyone else to post pics of spiders, and I’m looking at you @ficuswhisperer:
I have another relevant story to the thread to share. I gave a guest lecture tonight on gender and negotiation in librarianship, which is particularly important in my field because we hover at ~85% female. I gave my usual caveat at the beginning. While we often we talk about gender in terms of male and female, it’s the societal constructs commonly assigned to both that I’m discussing, not the fact that you have a penis and I have a vagina (I didn’t use those words, but I figure you guys can handle it). In particular, research shows that women are perceived as more cooperative and collaborative, and given negotiation research in the past 30 years, one would think that works in our favor. But it doesn’t [maybe a conversation for another thread]. To my point, here, however, one fella predictably said, “But I’m collaborative! And I’m male!” I’ve given iterations of this presentation numerous times at conferences, to classes, to co-workers. It always happens. He failed to see that he was the recipient of privilege because when we discuss privilege it’s intimidating and causes cognitive dissonance. Privilege is not an attack on you personally. It’s about recognizing more beyond our own experiences.
I braved my fear and clicked and there were no pictures of a very, hairy, scary tarantula. My fear also includes that I’ve modeled for my children. Just one more way I get to fuck them up! So, yeah!
