I had the great displeasure of working in the trades as an electrical helper turned apprentice for roughly 6 years total. Being male in a male dominated environment was already pretty awful. Especially as a quiet and thin person who in other ways as well did not meet many masculine expectations and was heavily criticized because of that.

During 2020, the company began hiring more women and we ended up with a young woman electrical apprentice. Right away I noticed how many of the older workers would go up to talk to her and linger around her area for uncomfortable periods of time. It was pretty constant and she couldn’t focus on her work.

After about a month of her working there, she asked me for help. I helped her like she was the same as any new apprentice that worked there. That may have been why she kept coming back to me with more questions. After that we became friends where I got to hear more stories from her. Like how she was told to her face that women belong in the offices and was that it was good she was working on a computer when the same person saw her again. Or how she and the only other woman in the apprenticeship classes were followed by large groups of guys after their classes finishes. Just a lot of uncomfortable stories of receiving way too much attention or having her abilities questioned.

I also witnessed two early 20s women who just looked absolutely uncomfortable being in the same building as all these older men who acted so gross towards them. Their body language seemed so closed off as if they could feel the stares while they walked to their work area. Trying to talk to some of the other younger guys about it got a whole lot of “yeah, but what can you do?” comments.

I tried to bring this issue, along with other issues about work culture to HR but all the HR manager did was accuse me of being wrong while telling me I wasn’t doing enough to fix the problem. As a result, they did nothing other than say a bunch of empty words at the next company meeting and fired me several months later.

I quit the trades and cancelled my apprenticeship after that. How I was personally treated was enough for me alone to quit the trades. Knowing how women and people like me get treated by such a large group of people is still significant enough of a reason to me to quit the trades as well.

Any woman in the trades that is able to succeed while dealing with all that sexism, through treatment or pay, is far more resilient than I am. I don’t envy the constant uphill battle of bullshit any woman has to deal with while in the trades.

I have the ability to make others feel safe and comfortable to be their themselves. It’s always a shock to me how comfortable some people get around me. I’m still waiting for someone to make me feel the same way.

It brings me some comfort seeing how clear and easy to understand language is being used against these angry people.

They are being forced to explain their behaviour instead of arguing the specifics of words. It’s subtle but effective in my opion.

I am really enjoying this.

I’ve been enjoying the use or weird lately. I’ve had some strong personal opinions on language lately. A lot of it comes with a huge increase of new words that sort of seem abstract from it’s meaning.

I think with how rapid information can spread to large groups of people, it’s just too fast for my mind to keep up. All of a sudden I feel like I’m in a war with words and who knows which landmine of a word will get you in trouble. It causes me even more anxiety when someone comes at you with manipulative intentions in order to control the direction of the discussion.

I think weird works because it’s an almost basic word. It’s simple and descriptive. It’s not a newer, more specific word that requires a deeper understanding of a broader topic. It’s understood by more people. People with varying degrees of language knowledge including people whose native language is not English. It’s easier for more people to understand.

It’s a lot easier to understand someone is weird compared to someone being a fascist.

The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Tatarstan, the region’s highest religious authority, also backed Kamaev, advising his critics to “watch the podcast in its entirety.”

I’ve seen this tactic used before in a more personal setting. The only discord server I’m on had one person who continually posted hate content or content from people known for creating hate content.

Whenever I called out specific parts of a video that were clearly anti-femme hate, they would attempt to pivot the responsibility on to me by telling me I didn’t watch enough the video entirely or that I need to watch more videos to understand why it’s okay to hate.

In this particular case on the discord server, this tactic was used to hide the fact that they did not understand why anti-femme hate was necessary and needed to be spread. They could not put the concept into their own words to show they understood. Instead they expect you to digest more hate content in order to understand concepts that they themselves struggle to understand.

I can’t help but see the same tactic being by the Spiritual Administration to shift responsibility back onto the people creating the justified backlash. The administration offers nothing in the form of transcripts, evidence or supporting arguments and instead expects you to waste your time and energy finding it yourself through a pile of more hate content.

I personally think that this tactic shows just how shallow hate can be. And while my experience with this tactic is limited to one instance on a discord server, I wouldn’t be surprised if other people got a weird, crazy or completely unexpected results if they pressured the hate-supporter/spreader in to verbalizing in their own words the hate they are spreading.

Since hate and hypocrisy are so closely bound together, I assume it would be safe to bet money that if you asked them to watch a video or listen to a podcast that did not advocate for physical violence, the administration or people who watch hate content would not watch or listen to your suggestion. A game they will play that’s as shallow as their hate.

I don’t believe all raccoons live near roads. It is entirely possible for some animals to have minimal or no contact with human infrastructure. The world is a big place even if it feels small at times.

Country raccoons aren’t aware of the dangers of motor vehicles. City raccoons would have been taught by their mother how to wait and avoid such obstacles. Foraging for food in bins is also a lot different than hunting for food in a more wild setting. The diets are vastly different with the mother again showing the young how to search and obtain food in their respective environments.

Yes, racoons can teach each other but from my understanding, a lot of that teaching is from mother to child.

I do not expect a city human to be able to head into the wild and survive without a considerable amount of training before heading out. A wild human would have a difficult time adjusting to the city life without starting out with some money.

I still stand by my original statement unless I can be proven otherwise.

I watched a documentary about racoons. It mainly focused on raccoons that live in the city and how they adapted to city life. City raccoons adapted so well that city racoons and country raccoons would not be able to survive in each other’s world.

If I recall correctly, cities helped the spread of racoons throughout North America. Any animal that has is able to adapt so easily is far more clever than we give them credit for.

And since they aren’t bound by human laws, I fully support them in vandalising and trashing these Cyber Truck monstrosities. I’m eternally jealous that they can look so cute while accidentally rebelling against Musk.

Yeah, I can see where that can be ambiguous. My intention was not to be divisive. That is definitely something I can keep in mind for the next time.

Thank you for pointing that out.

Can you specify where I distinctly put men in to two groups? Where I stated who is and is not a man? Otherwise I am having difficult time understanding where your conclusions are coming from.

I feel like my words are being misrepresented but I do not know what I am doing wrong in this situation to understand if I should defend or change myself.

I do not know what line I am drawing in the sand when I was talking about a type of person, especially one I’ve had too much experience dealing with personally.

There are many types of people and people are not as simple as an on/off switch.

I guess that’s my personal view coming through. I hate labels and prefer to use broader terms.

Usually when I use men with quotations, I’m refering to the type of men that consume hate content. The type of content that promotes the appearance of male dominance and excessive masculinity that looks extremely gay to the outside observer. The word men that is being forcefully twisted into matching this new and ugly meaning.

I’ve had to deal with these types of people in work settings my whole life and my patience ran out after the covid lockdowns. As a response, I’ve discarded as many labels as possible and have chosen to refer myself as something broader and less precise.

Unless I am speaking to a medical professional, I am no longer a male or man. I prefer to be known as a person. Simply a person. When I meet someone, I treated them as a person, free of labels so that they can show me who they are. I do that because that’s how I want to be treated.

I’ve had a better experience posting comments using broader language in that I received a lot less hate filled backlash. The downside is that I feel the need include a lot of nuance which can make posting comments feel like writing an article.

Broadness and specificity in language has always been a challenge for me. I do try to be as inclusive as possible in my language but I’m not always going to get it right. I can keep it in mind the next time I use men in quotations.

“This is exactly why women should not be police, military, or Secret Service. Her one job was to jump in front and take a bullet for Trump, but instead she cowered behind him.” wrote Jake Shields, a former MMA fighter, above the picture on X. The post has been viewed 5.8 million times.

A potato whose job was to be be punched in the head repetitively by sweaty, muscely dudes while he aggressively cuddles them back suddenly knows the job of a woman in a completely different field of work. So much so that he feels the need to explain her job to her. The job she already did which was all caught on video. Hmm…

Even if she or any other agent took a bullet for Herr Trump, this woman would still receive all the hate and blame. It’s quite clear to me that these types of “men” just want women to be slaves or corpses.

How many of these “men” would put themselves in the path of a bullet for another person? Do they even have the energy or motivation to leave the screen behind to go take a bullet for someone else? Actions speak louder than words and all these dudes just keep yelling. I wonder how much all this hot air get accounted for in our current climate crisis models used by scientists.

This feels like satire? A site called real men, real style with an article about penises?

I just assume it’s code for “sword fighting.”

They look like springtails to me. I use springtails and isopods in my gecko’s terrarium as a clean up crew.

The isopods eat the poop while the springtails eat any mold that would grow in moist conditions. I do have plants in there too so all that bug poop goes right back into the soil to be reused.

They can’t survive outside of a moist environment for long and will simply dry out. I have no idea how harmful they are to plants alone but at least you don’t have to worry about mold.

Omegaverse works are most frequently focused on male-male couples composed of an Alpha and an Omega,[6] though heterosexual Omegaverse works have been produced,[11] and by 2013, about 10% on Archive of Our Own were labeled male/female.[8]

The origin of the Omegaverse is typically attributed to the fandom surrounding the American television series Supernatural, as a fusion between werewolves and the male pregnancy subgenre of erotic fan fiction.

I read that wiki page and I can’t help but come to the conclusion that primarily gay werewolf fanfic is being used to promote fascism?

I prefer my absurdist and surrealist humour to be works of fiction D:

There was also the reality that many tech companies’ leading executives, Bezos included, had reached middle age. Mortality’s inevitable creep was closing in. It seemed unfair — cruel, even — that people who had acquired all that the material realm had to offer might be forced to face a fate so pedestrian as old age and, eventually, death.

Mid-life crises (criseses?) have always been a strange curiosity to me. When I was younger, there seemed to be much more talk about the inevitable mid-life crisis. Typically this crisis was male centred. It often involved men buying expensive new toys such as cars, trucks, motor bikes, boats or doing things such as cheating or chasing younger women. I can’t recall any talk of feminine mid-life crises or any stereotypical responses. Even if there was a typical feminine mid-life crisis response, it seemed to my young perspective that it was heavily overshadowed by the masculine mid-life crisis and it’s response.

It now seems that the mid-life crisis response has evolved to include health and “peak” physical appearance as promoted by social media influencers. I guess this seems like the logical next step. When I was younger, I began to notice a trend in all this behaviour. Many of these men fear death. They are afraid of their aging bodies. They are afraid that other people will notice their aging bodies. They fear they will no longer be respected by other men. They are absolute cowards created by their own insecurities.

Dealing with aging in an aging body is something everyone has to deal with at some point, it’s a completely normal process of life. We humans have the misfortune of excess free time to think and dwell on our aging bodies. For some people, this can scare them into a vicious hunt for the mythical fountain of youth. And if a man can’t find the fountain of youth, then they will chase youthfulness through dangerous hobbies, material possessions, young women and physical fitness. Adrenaline, wealth, status and virility. Combine these things together and you have a vehicle of destruction that leaves behind a hot mess for everyone else to deal with while also influencing and shaping the minds of young boys and men to continue the cycle.

The most bizarre thing about the masculine mid-life crisis is how painfully gay it all actually is. The wealth, the stuff, the young women, the physical appearance, it’s all for other men. It’s a giant performance and they want to be paid in the currency of respect because respect is the secret currency of masculinity. Masculinity is for the male gaze and masculinity has no room for the unmasculine. It’s seriously gay.

And there is Bryan Johnson, a former venture capitalist, who is attempting to achieve his mantra, “Don’t Die,” through a longevity regime that involves a strict diet, going to bed at 8:30 pm, and tracking his nightly erections.

Seriously, what the fuck.

I’m still shaking my head in disbelief from all the penises rockets these dudes launched in their pointless giant dick measuring contest.

From my perspective, separating women from the respect currency of masculinity is one of many aspects that needs to be worked on by men to produce well rounded people. Otherwise we will all suffocate under masculinities endlessly growing ego.

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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 :)