State Your Unpopular Opinions

pretty much everything you use for convenience could be considered to take a job from somebody. we can't really expect the world to never change just out of fear of someone losing a job. as certain old jobs go away, other new jobs come into existence, just like it's always been.

 

Are self checkouts really convenient though? I don't think so, I'm forever always having to have the one person in charge of them swipe their little card and enter a code to reset the bloody thing because the bagging area couldn't identify the weight of my purchase. I'd rather so mindless youth just scan scan scan scan scan scan scan, job done.

 

i almost never have problems with them. when they were a new thing i would occasionally have the problem you're describing, but i can't even remember the last time it happened.

 

I worked at a grocery store as my first job so i'm a natural at self check out. I even remember some of the produce codes

 

I probably have that problem because I sneakily hold two things in one hand, scan and then deposit, and it picks up the weight. I only do it at big chains though, fuck them.

 

My first two jobs were K Mart and Woolworths in produce. I sat in the cool room hiding in a corner smashing those nectarines and peaches like a boss.

 

I don’t care if they’re a local band from Portland Oregon. Modest Mouse is way over rated

 

people should have to get a licence and psychological testing (at the very least) before having kids

 

I came across this question a while back, and put that opinion out there.. and oh, the firestorm! you'd think I'd advocated eating live kittens. (actually, I think they would have been less disgusted with me) so.. this was my reply to them, and by way of education of why I hold that particular opinion.

as someone who was conceived in a misguided attempt to 'save a marriage' (she was unfaithful to her husband because he wouldn't get her pregnant. didn't tell her he'd gotten clipped, and she wanted to force him to stay with her) and stuck with an emotionally stunted, borderline psychologically crippled abusive mother with all the nurturing instinct of a drunken stoat, who made it clear that because I wasn't born a perfect little girl, I was a defective and useless male, I didn't deserve love, affection or support.

All around me, I see people who have absolutely zero business being responsible for a library card or sea monkeys, let alone a small, vulnerable human being that can't possibly defend themselves.. and I see these people popping out small human after small human, screwing them up, and setting them loose onto the world.

I only WISH that /some/ kind of licensing had been required before my conception. All of you that say that it borders on eugenics? ok. you do have a point. But, tell me how I wouldn't have been better off not born. or at least adopted out to someone capable of putting in more effort than to say 'go away. I never wanted you in the first place'

Having seen the results of free breeding, I'm all for the idea of testing. And I know a lot of miserable, horribly broken people who feel the same way. but /we/ don't matter, because other people want to squirt out infants unimpeded by the slightest inconvenience (otherwise more people would actually USE birth control) but giving absolutely zero forethought to the burning dumpster-fire trainwreck of a human being they're going to screw up and turn out into the world.
people talking about 'oh the choice, the choice' the choice was made to make my life a misery because someone couldn't take this woman aside and say 'you're histrionic, you have delusions of grandeur, a martyr complex, you're a hoarder, and you can barely feed and clothe yourself. No. you cannot raise a child.'

So.. I personally thank each one of you that believe it should be free to anyone. Thank you for each sexual assault. Thank you for each beating. Thank you for each stroke of the belt, or the extension cord. Thank you for hours of being locked in the closet. Thank you for never having enough to eat and thank you for leaving me with someone who had no business being near a child.

All people care about are selfishly generating a partial genetic soup with someone else, so they can say 'this child is /mine/'. Adopt. Take a child who is in a situation like mine was and save their life. at least then you have to attempt to prove you're capable of caring for it.

Testing? yes. absolutely. please. as a survivor of it.. please, do not let another child go through what I did.

 

Sorry you had such an unpleasant childhood experience. Parenting isn't the natural talent everyone seems to think it should be and it's definitely not something that should be undertaken for the sake of trying to improve a relationship, or keep someone in one. Many (even fairly okay parents) seem to lack the understanding that their kid is a separate entity, not an extention of themselves

 

In theory this might sound like a good idea, but I would fear the authority that would be issuing these licenses and tests. I’m sorry that you had a rough upbringing from reckless parents and I can see where you’re coming from. However the government used to make minorities take tests that were impossible to pass, before they could vote. Eugenicists, Malthusians, and population control advocates would exploit these tests for sure.

 

I don't disagree in that it would be easy to abuse. I would think at least somewhere on the scale of a driver's test. (and that's to licence and control a multi-ton vehicle, capable of killing multiple people at once, and most minorities have little difficulty passing those.) but yeah.. on its face, it's a horrifying idea. but honestly, we need population control anyway. (and it /is/ an unpopular opinion) it is a problem, but the big problem is there's not an effective solution that won't lead to open revolt in the streets either. (by the very people who'll drop out a dozen crotchfruit and neglect them anyway)

only the lawful people (who incidentally would understand the need for it in the first place) would abide by it, and everyone else would just go out and reproduce freely.

I wish I had a good suggestion for a solution, but I don't. and as someone who endured this, and knowing there are kids out there enduring far worse.. my question is 'how many is enough for it to be too many abused?' what's the acceptable number that have to suffer before it becomes enough of a problem for people to deal with it voluntarily? (which would be the best way)

 

That wasn't a nice way to treat anyone, much less your own son.

I hate hearing this.

You are among friends here and we value you.

 

thank you. that is really beyond heartwarming, and one of the nicest things I've ever heard.

I'll never get any kind of closure on it from her.. she's blocked it all out, claims it never happened, etc. and it's hard to not turn things back on her now that I'm her caretaker. but I won't. I'm not like that.

it's easier to think of her as a confused and senseless old biddy, and that I'm an orphan taking care of her. never had a dad. (only spoke to my legal father once. when I was 6. he told me it was my fault their marriage failed, and that if I had any kind of decency I'd be ashamed of existing, and that I should lay my head under the front tire of the school bus the next morning. all my mother said was 'I told you not to talk to him and just bring it straight to me. stupid brat.')

so.. didn't really have a mother either. (shrugs)

like the new avatar btw.

 

Anyone can have a baby, yet trying to get a kitten or a puppy is the most difficult thing in the world.

 

yep, to adopt one of my fuzzy boys from the shelter took me 4 visits with him, a half dozen pages of paperwork, adoption fees (which I totally get) and a home visit.

 

I don’t like how the #metoo movement has caused any guy’s life to be ruined based on allegations and no evidence. Not sure what happened to innocent until proven guilty?

 

I found the me too thing took away from my experience. It put my experience in a bucket of generic incidents that shouldn't be grouped together.

 

I don't much like being Virgo. It's kind of weird growing up and learning the symbol for your star sign is a nubile female virgin.

 

Excellent point, too.

 

I can't like that it did this, but you have my support. movements like #metoo tend to wind up conglomerating things that shouldn't be lumped together, and it winds up washing it all out and diluting everything.