In a confusing story emerging from Phoenix, AZ, 27-year-old self-proclaimed “tell it like it is”-type of guy Pierson Miller has no problem saying every slur under the sun, but has drawn a hard line at being called “weird.”
“It’s just such a rude and callous thing to say about someone,” Piers
(please read literally–no judgement intended) From one medicated, therapied autist to another: You might want to bring up these emotions with your therapist. You seem to be taking calling Republicans “weird” personally, and I know my therapist would be interested if I were having a similar reaction. My therapist would be all “ok, let’s look at the emotions wheel and figure out what you’re feeling, then we can talk about why”. Talking with your professional about this might help you weather the current political season in a more healthy way.
I’ve literally sent my therapist a Discord thread conversation that haunted me. My therapist was able to help dissect the interaction and I have a better understanding of which of my metaphorical buttons were pressed, so I’m more able to deal with similar situations in the future.
I’ve talked with my therapist a lot. The conclusion I’ve come to is while the level of upset I get is outsized, my emotions are valid.
The weird comment was just the last straw. Since 2018, I’ve seen so much toxic behavior justified by political coding. It started off online, but post covid it really hit the mainstream. A lot of this behavior is almost objectively unacceptable, and the talking through this kind of stuff with my therapist affirmed my gut feeling that the political coding was just an excuse. Here are some examples I’ve seen, from online and real life:
At this point I’ve seen this toxicity on a personal level, from democratic politicians, on social media, and in traditional media. It is very much a real part of liberal culture.
What therapy has also helped me realize is that, in the past, I felt a similar resentment towards conservative culture. My shift in anger corresponds to when I moved from a more conservative area of the county to a liberal area of the country. I think that there are a certain type of people who are just shitty and looking to excuse their behavior, and political coding is the way to do that in 2024.
I’ve also explored how I became the person I am today, specifically how I “beat” the bullying. The answer was ultimately that I disengaged. Senior year of high school I avoided anyone in my grade that I didn’t have an explicitly good relationship with, and successfully attempted to make friends outside of my school. In college, I chose a university that students from my high school almost never go to, and made it a point to attempt to form connections from people with a different background. After college, I made a commitment to not move anywhere close to my hometown.
I am actively applying these conclusions to my decision not to vote. My feelings that liberal culture is toxic are valid. The best way to deal with them is to disengage. At the same time, there are equivalent issues in conservative culture that I’m not having an emotional reaction to by virtue of lack of exposure. So, the best solution is not to vote, and to transition to being a more apolitical person as a whole. While that’s by no means a perfect solution, absolutely nothing will change if I continue taking the same approach towards politics that I have for a good decade at this point.
You need a much better therapist.
This comm is about satire. Not your obviously deep seeded problems.
Yeah, most of that just came out of left field and was entirely unrelated to anything he’d said before. At first I was like “wait, did they lemmy-stalk me and figure out my dad died of covid and my partner’s in a polyamorous relationship with a woman?” but no, it was entirely unrelated to anything.
Just… I’m glad all that’s off his chest, but I fear that’s only because he’s using it as a bludgeoning weapon.