Ask Lemmy

I'm unwillingly associated with mankind.

I own a gun and I strongly think that you SHOULD be able to own one IF you meet the qualifications. But I think those qualifications should be more strict and the penalty for being unsafe with your guns should be to lose them. Forever.

Violent crimes in the past including domestic? Say bye bye to your guns. Can't pass a background check? No exceptions.

Guns should be accessible to those who can pass strict check and removed permanently for behavior that is indicative of a potential problems.

But because I support the owning of guns I'm assumed to be one of .... them. Ugh. Yucks.

I handle it by showing my disgust and trying to explain that just because I support something doesn't mean that I fall in on a survey.

The entire gun "culture" is just toxic as fuck. To the point that if we ever do lose the right it will be their unwillingness to bend that causes it.

The Russians. I'm against war, not living in Russia, working and paying taxes elsewhere. It was hard to make peace with myself, as you have to rip the vision of your country into two pieces - the first is the culture, places where you lived, your friends. The second is an insane killing machine called "the state". Have to learn not to associate yourself with that second half.
The support from many people, from here and from other countries, including a couple of Ukrainian friends (takes time to prove that you're "normal"), really helped.
Sorry for everything, I hope the old man will die soon.

I'm a large, unpleasant looking man living in a red state who has a pickup truck, and a harley. I'm married to a methodist lay speaker. I have a few firearms.

So naturally I must be the biggest trump supporting, red-hat wearing, religious conservative twatwaffle in existence, there is no other option.

As a result, the actual redhat cockwombles I work with think I'm going to be OK with their racist comments, and are shocked when I'm not. The thing that helps me with these guys is the fact that they are having to work from prints that have my initials on them so they can whine about the LiBuRl all they want, and I'll still be helping them get their jobs done.

The traits they are assuming make me One of Them™ are just incidental things. I have a battered old truck because my wife and I have either a large garden or a small farm, depending on how you look at it. A Honda Civic won't carry the stuff I need. (Neither will a van) I have a harley because the local motorcycle dealers are pretty terrible tp deal with, but the harley dealer is nice, helpful, and act like they want to sell a bike. I'm large and unpleasant because of genetics. And I have firearms because for most of my adult life I have lived somewhere that has an hour's response time for law enforcement, and I've had to defend myself in the past. None of these things made me hate any particular group of people.

I'm frequently accused of being a white person by people who are looking directly at me and seeing my tan skin and my shoulder blade length dark brown hair.

And I don't really know what to say. Like, thank you for letting me enjoy the white privilege card, but it doesn't really do me any favors because in most areas the native American privilege card outweighs the white privilege card.

On the other hand, I am occasionally accused of being a Mexican even though I'm 6 ft 1 and speak very fluent English without a identifiable accent.

And old people have handed me things written in Spanish and asked me to translate it for them because it's my native language and it's fucking not, but then, since I can usually figure out what written Spanish means I still tell them the answer but I feel weird about it and I don't want to be made to feel that way.

I'm very much into guns, have 35-45 or so, depending on your definition of "gun". I particularly like buying old crappy ones and fixing them up. They aren't "safe queens" either, I shoot every one of them at times, and shoot almost every weekend at my camp in the swamp.

I am liberal in about every other aspect and given the GOP's behavior since Obama took office, I'm voting straight ticket D till the day I die. I loathe being lumped in with the right-wingers and their attitudes.

I'm a man, which means I am part of "men."

Lots of men are predatory, objectify women and scoff at feminism. Being a man, people just inherently assume I'm like that too.

I deal with it by engaging only with people who demonstrate the ability to listen and withhold judgment.

I'm unwillingly associated with the U.S. Democratic Party only because I'm uncompromising in my beliefs of equality and antifascism, but disagree with almost other policy of theirs^1

1. This doesn't mean I agree with the only other major US party.

Transmeds. Trans folk who gatekeep other trans folk, and think they can say who is "really trans" and who isn't.

I've been called a tanky, neolib, fascist, radfem, misogynist, racist, "woke", republican, Democrat, religious nutjob, and militant athiest over my time on Reddit and I wouldn't really agree with any of those descriptors lol. People just assume that if you have an even remotely nuanced opinion on a topic then you must belong to the "other side". I don't really care most of the time. I know what I believe and I don't let it be defined by tribalism.

Neckbeards, because I fit some of the stereotypes.

I'm interested in roleplaying and videogames, so people assume I'm one of those gatekeeping basement dwellers that mock "girl gamers" and play WoW and weird hentai games 23 hours a day. Honestly, I couldn't care less about what other players have in their pants or which games they like as long as everyone is having fun.

I own two swords, so people assume I'm one of those "leave the multibillion dollar company alone" fedora-wearing m'lady incels who pose with their katanas for sh*tty profile pics and think they look like ninjas or something. The thing is, me and two buddies did show fights for medieval faires for a couple of years, so the weapons aren't just decoration / dumb tokens to make myself feel cool. Granted, the "fights" were more or less scripted, but it still had to look convincing enough to entertain the masses.

It's especially annoying when actual neckbeards think I'm "one of them" and are then surprised that I don't share any of their cringey, prejudice-laden, condescending world views.

I watch a ton of anime, and I hate weebs so damn much

am asked if i was russian bot once

I find myself agreeing with the libertarian socialist school of thought, which means in debates I get accused of a lot of opinions I don't agree with, because I disagree with things using socialist language or libertarian points.

US political parties.

Because I live in and enjoy living in Chicago, am socially liberal, an ardent feminist, an aspiring antiracist, people assume I'm a Democrat. Honestly, even the first alone is usually enough to trigger this assumption.

Because I'm politically conservative, respect religious freedom, respect the second amendment, and oppose stacking the Supreme Court, people assume I'm a Republican; even though the GOP hasn't respected religious freedom or been politically conservative in general in decades.

And when I tell people that I'm not registered with a party, won't vote along party lines, and won't vote the lesser evil, I'm assumed to be politically inactive, apathetic, or ignorant. Whereas I'm very active, always vote, usually campaign for favored candidates and against corrupt incumbents.

The "team sport" mentality of FPTP political systems is absolutely terrible, honestly.