Oh gosh, I was already nervous about asking just one person. Asking a group?! I can feel my soul dying already.

Fucking right.

What I can’t stand is the critics who say “yOu jUst WAnT tO fEel sPeCiAL.”

Bruh. Neurodiverse people are well aware that we aren’t normal. We don’t need to make up a label in order to stand out - we have stood out like sore thumbs our entire lives, yet never understood why.

Finding out a reason for our quirks, and a community of like minds, provides us a way to finally fit in somewhere. What we seek isn’t to be, “Look at me, I’m so different!” but rather, “Wow, there are all these people who are like me! I’m not alone!” What we want is literally the opposite of what such people accuse us of wanting.

It’s the epitome of neurotypicality to think everyone must want to stand out. That argument betrays just how little such a person understands our point of view.

It’s easy to be friendly at work. But turning that “work-friend” relationship into a real friendship, one where you do things outside of work together, is still a mystery to me. I have no idea how people do that. Others make it look so easy. I can’t imagine anyone at my job dislikes me, we all compliment each other, laugh at each others’ jokes, and hold fun conversations on the clock. Yet when a crowd gets together after work and plans where to go next, I’m baffled. I’m too anxious to invite myself, but nobody ever invites me, so I just try to ignore it so I don’t feel hurt. :')

Just getting the kids’ attention is half the battle, and in a crowded classroom that battle’s already lost.

Then add in modern parents that think their disruptive kid can do no wrong…

Oh, sorry Diogenes!

Ahh, thank you. I totally forgot about spreading knives for a moment.

I love the idea of using a knife to carve another knife. It’s like your knife had a baby.

I’m also curious, what kind of material can a wooden knife be used for?

So true. As a teen my bf and I accidentally ruined his big sister’s birthday because of this. We were waiting for a flight that kept getting delayed all day and by the time it finally got cancelled, his sister had to postpone her plans to drive to the airport to get us. She was all dressed up in a sexy anime-esque/lolita style and it was clear we ended up cockblocking her birthday date. I felt so bad, but there was nothing we could do.

No no, we still need peer review. I’ll bring it up to my girlfriend and see if we can replicate the results. I don’t have all the fancy equipment though, so to map our clitorises we’ll have to get creative…

I live for the kids in my life. I find light in the darkness from the kids I work with, as well as my nephews and my niece. I see them learn and grow, and being able to play a part in helping them navigate this dizzying world keeps me grounded. There are so many things I had to learn the hard way, so many difficult situations I had to learn to cope with by myself, because the adults in my life didn’t understand and/or care about my perspective. For me, being able to guide them, to be the adult for them that I never had in my childhood, gives me a strong sense of purpose that keeps me chugging along.

at least one

Imagine being the one and only person in space. I consider myself a pretty extreme loner, but even I think that would be terrifying.

Oh wow, another former optical lab tech in the wild.

I switched fields years ago and I’m glad I did. Visiting glasses shops today, there’s almost no on-site lab to speak of anymore. Maybe some finishing machines, but I haven’t seen a full surface lab in years.

I don’t have anything to add to the contact lens story except - wow, that’s nasty.

Lol, I used to do this as a kid. Didn’t steal anything, but I deliberately acted shady just to see what would happen. Nothing ever did.

Logic puzzles should be applied in more classrooms. Start with simple problems in elementary school, and progress to more challenging ones as students grow. Critical thinking needs to start early.

I interpreted it as a criticism of those who think there’s no point to learning something if there isn’t an immediately-obvious application for that knowledge. Like those who say, “What’s the point of learning history? I’m not going to become a historian,” as if learning needs to have a clear end-goal or else it’s useless. Or those who think it’s pointless to learn to play an instrument because you’re not going to become a famous musician. It’s a mentality that ties in with capitalism, where if you’re not being productive, you have no use.

A well-rounded education should equip students with skills they can apply independently no matter what they do. Learning history provides context for the world we live in, why it is the way it is, and can inform us on how to move forward. Learning to play an instrument builds new connections in the brain, strengthens fine motor skills, and (in the case of reading music) how to move information between abstract concepts and a tangible form.

These skills provide benefits to people that can be built upon in the future. They may not have immediate usage to a student, but they create a foundation upon which a student can reach higher as they progress in life. Not every lesson is practical in the moment, but that doesn’t mean it can’t have value to a growing mind.

I don’t think I’ve blocked anyone. There are plenty of users I disagree with on one point or another, but I like being exposed to different perspectives. I have to admit, I even like reading a spicy comment section sometimes (and by the up/downvote ratios on some threads, it’s clear that other people like reading them, too, even if they wouldn’t say so.) I know I’m not the only one breaking out the popcorn when I see a bigot getting torn apart in a comment chain.

If somebody seems to be trolling, I report them. But there seems to be a pattern of some trolls making accounts to spam, getting blocked by mods, and then popping up with a new username, so I don’t see much point in blocking individual accounts.

I’m far more likely to block communities. Not because they’re upsetting or offensive or anything, but because I either don’t care about whatever its topic is, or I don’t speak the language it’s written in.

The other examples on the Know Your Meme page were worth it

Okay, but the image idea for those NFTs is fantastic. Smithers would be so into that.

Oh, I get its point, I just think it’s a nonsensical phrase.

NOTES: Each point represents a country.

That graph doesn’t rank rich people vs poor people; it ranks rich countries vs poor countries. Lots of other factors determine global fertility rate.

As a relevant example, there’s a strong correlation between the educational level attained by women and their fertility rate.

Here’s the same chart from that page, in case the linked site has issues:

But that’s besides the point illustrated by this post, as the post article only pertains to one country - the United States. People in the US are experiencing changes that downgrade their quality of life over time. The economy was different when we were kids, and as a millennial, my generation has pretty much only seen things get worse.

Poor people in under-developed nations have it bad, but when that’s all people have known, normal life goes on. Some may even have hope that perhaps some day they can see their country grow and prosper, that they can see their children in a better world.

By contrast, the US is experiencing an economic downslide. We don’t see hope on the horizon. We were raised on promises (shout out to Tom Petty), but then matured into a country that did nothing but break them. Things seem to be getting worse all the time, right in the prime of our child-bearing/child-rearing years. We have no idea what anything is supposed to cost anymore, attaining affordable housing requires winning a literal lottery, and have you gone to the grocery store lately? Buying enough for one person is already absurd, I can’t imagine having more mouths to feed.

Consider this the coincidence of women having high education + low income. More of us are aware of and have access to birth control (except for many in republican states, those poor women.) It seems that right now, the influence of education is stronger than the (supposed) pro-fertility influence of poverty you claim.

Though those certainly aren’t the only two measures we could use to link wealth and fertility. Religion, secular cultural influences and practices, accessibility of contraception… it’s a big picture, with lots of detail to look at.