confusedpuppy

Emotional intelligence has always been a sort of hidden magnet in my life that's pulled me towards people who had the emotional capacity to treat people like people instead of treating people based off any first impressions or preconceived labels.

The people who I remember and hold closest in my memories have been people who understood that I'm my own unique person, with my own experiences that shaped me, with my own way of solving problems, and my own way of learning from those experiences. They were able to assist and guide me in a more human and understandable way. It felt more positive and encouraging. I learned so much more from people with a stronger sense of emotional intelligence in comparison to people who lack emotional intelligence.

Unfortunately, with what I believe to be a global mental health crisis brought on by the arrival of a global pandemic, it's been obvious to me that there has been a critical lack of education in any form of emotional intelligence. Thinking back on my own education, there was more a focus on employable math and science skills, language with a heavy historical perspective, history with a heavily propagandized perspective and obedience within a narrow and confined learning structure. The only class that taught me any sort of life skills was the lowest level math class I had the option to take. The math class only "stupid" kids took.

After the initial uncertainty wore off and reality set in with the global pandemic, those who lacked the emotional intelligence to look within began to lash out at everyone around them. To them, the world turned against them as they were expected to be empathetic towards other people. It's been difficult to process and deal with such a critical lack of emotional intelligence on such a large scale.

Those who are filled with hate for themselves and the world around them have far more energy than those with a better sense of their own emotional intelligence. Those who are filled with hate are burning out everyone else around them.

I think now more than ever, there needs to be more emotional intelligence education for both young and old. It will be very difficult to help ourselves move forward if we aren't being empathic towards each other and the world around us.

I'm aware what I've said isn't very specific to autism but it's a topic that was made much more clearer to me after figuring out I have autism and understanding how it's affected my life.

This seems like an idea spawned from an evil madman obsessed with both owning a clone army and eternal youth.

Human creativity can be so unsettling sometimes...

Pride encompasses more than just homosexuality. There's a wide range sexuality that is there to be acknowledged and celebrated. Especially in the face of so much hate that is rampant today. It's strange that there is such a focus on "homosexuality" in particular.

The way you talk about etiquette and that homosexuality should be a thing not discussed in public is also concerning. Sweeping up all the people that Pride represents under a rug doesn't make the real and dangerous threat these people face magically disappear.

In order to us as a species on this planet to collectively move forward, we must be able to talk about difficult topics. If we shut our eyes, ears and minds to difficult topics, refusing to acknowledge past and current horrors and deny existence and freedom, we will never be able to move forward as we repeat history over and over and over again.

Sexuality, and by extension, the right to express one's self freely and safely is a positive and encouraging step forward that has the power to uplift and benefit everyone, not just those who celebrate Pride.

By ignoring these people, and any other specific groups of people, we derail our chance to learn and understand ourselves and the world around us. We will only end up repeating history until we can't record history any longer.

If something as simple as a rainbow potion is that upsetting, the game is open sourced and you can remove it yourself. The other option that I usually take when I disagree with a developer is to stop giving them my attention and money. I can't be upset if I don't subject myself to their artistic creations.

I was in a situation not long ago on the only discord server I frequent. This angry American guy kept posting women hating content that he thought was hilarious. Called him out on it and he tried to justify that women and men need their own community spaces. On a discord server owned and run by a woman for a video game we all play together.

He tried to go off on unrelated tangents but I stuck to my main point. I made it clear that his type of behaviour is what makes women feel unsafe in many communities and spaces. I also made it clear that his approach to mental health care was deeply flawed and did so by a long string of questions and statements all pointing out his hypocritical actions. I think that worked?

He kept going off on trans people, I asked him why he kept thinking of trans people. He kept saying women and men need their own spaces, I told him that if he is so desperate for men's only spaces, there's gay bars and clubs to go to. He kept bringing up other groups of people he hated in response to mental health questions, I asked him if he cares about his mental health or just looking for someone else to blame for his hate filled behaviour. When he deflected a question about why women feel unsafe in so many spaces, I brought it back around to challenge him to ask women why they feel unsafe and find out himself. The more he talked, the more he cornered himself. His actions never matched his words so I had a year+ catalogue of his hypocrisy to throw back at him.

In the end he agreed to stop posting hate content and then disappeared for a week. He came back briefly to privately talk to the discord server owner, she laid into him with a couple paragraphs regarding his hate towards women. He never responded and has disappeared again. I'm hoping he is reflecting real hard about himself right now, but I'm low on hope.

The biggest issue I have in dealing with hate filled people is that they have what feels like an infinite source of energy and their hate completely burns out all the good people they surround themselves with. Some of us are just exhausted and only want to play games, share stupid memes and post cute pet pictures. Don't bring your hate trash everywhere you go, please. It ain't funny.

I'm so tired.

My future allies for the future water wars kindly disagree :)

I wish it were that simple but the opossums in my head are throwing a party every night with the raccoons, the skunks and Carl while I toss and turn all night...

I've never understood why people think wasps are so aggressive. At least where I live. They are curious like a bumblebee although slightly more persistent in hanging around.

If I am eating food, I leave a bit for them just within arms reach so they feast on that rather than what I'm eating.

They seem pretty chill if you're willing to share your space and food with them.

I've found myself lately a lot more interested in games that don't focus heavily on graphics but instead allow other parts of the game to speak for itself. This allows for the imagination to fill in the gaps, as you mentioned.

I've been playing a lot or Caves of Qud recently. It's a rogue-like game with tile graphics and colourful text. Somehow this menu simulator game has drawn me into it's harsh and unforgiving world. The tile based graphics actually allows for an amazing amount of creative freedom both from the developer and player point of views. The developer has created this futuristic planet with mutants and cybernetics roaming the planet trying to survive. The player has the freedom to play as they like and create the most unique characters they can imagine. My current character has two hearts, a scorpion tail, a fanged beak, two dagger wielding claws and a habit for stabbing.

I think the rise of constantly better technology has inadvertently encouraged a focus on better graphics over other aspects of video games. While there are some absolutely beautiful games with higher hardware demand, I think as of late, I'm yearning for games that focus more on story or gameplay. Games where you can feel the developer's passion. Games with polish and attention to details in the most unexpected ways. Games that attempt to push boundaries within certain limitations (think hardware or graphic styles for example).

I think what I want is a game that feels like I'm reading a fiction book in a way. What I mean is that when you read a work of fiction, your imagination is filling in all that visual information. A game can provide you more than just text, but if it can balance graphics, gameplay and story, it can really transport and immerse your imagination into that world.

My trauma response to people who consistently jump to the most wild and unpredictable conclusions.

There's no greater shock to people who lack empathy and an unwillingness to treat people with dignity than a person willing to put their foot down to prioritize their own dignity.

Fucking with manipulators would be more fun if they weren't such scary and dangerous people.

I'm glad to see more posts recently with a push towards regenerative farming practices. In the past when I talked about it, I was either largely ignored or got a lot or push back to continue with modern, standard practices dependant on chemicals or fertilisers.

In my opinion, understanding the importance of what lives in the soil, what their roles are in their ecosystem and how to cater to those living organisms is all very important to growing crops.

I've had a lot of trouble finding decent or reliable information online about regenerative farming. I've taken a lot of inspiration from what little I've learned from indigenous cultures that I've been exposed to in my life and have been fumbling my way around experimenting with my garden over the past couple years.

The article mentions how some people find regenerative farms look messy. I think the wild, natural look makes everything seem more beautiful. With diverse crops and crop cover, it brings more pollinators and more life to my little garden in this suburban wasteland of cut grass lawns and driveways.