You have been warned

Sometimes I am justifiably angry and I will admit when an appropriately assholish target presents itself, I will sometimes give into the temptation to bully the bully. It's a bad habit I picked up in high school I have not completely kicked as an adult. But most of the time, I try to vent that anger on video game mobs for instant gratification and release. It helps but isn't foolproof. Sometimes, I get to a point where everything makes me so angry I shake and am visibly tense. When that happens, I disconnect from the internet and isolate from my family except for necessities. I phrase it as 'I don't want to deal with me, so I don't expect anyone else to.' That's why it's called 'anger management'. So when people talk about 'seeing red' and 'uncontrollable rages', it does make me mad. Because there's no such thing. You know you're angry, you know why you're angry and how you react to is a personal choice with cultural expectations and norms as mitigating factors. I could be abusive, exhausting, and leave a path of destruction in my wake. I certainly have a laundry list of legitimate reasons for being mad. But that isn't the person I want to be, and I try really hard everyday not to be a heinous bitch. I do not always succeed and sometimes I pettily purposely unload. But people 'making me mad' is not an excuse to abuse them. Me being mad is not a reason to hurt other people. It's just not. It won't make me feel better in the long run, and it just causes more problems down the road. So if someone is being abusive, they are choosing to do it. I don't care if it's culturally acceptable at this time. Foot binding and slavery were culturally acceptable for large swathes of history. That never made them right or helpful to individuals or society as a whole. Unchecked abusive behavior isn't good for anyone, even if it gets you engagement. To the victims of these people, please don't expect these people to change. Try to safely get away from them if possible and if not, avoid them as much as you can. You cannot save them, you cannot change them. This is who they have decided they want to be and you will get hurt the longer they are in your lives. I know that reality hurts, because giving up on someone you love is difficult. But as someone who has spent decades dealing with this issue and seen the damage that is done when abusers are given free reign, I refuse to encourage people to stay where they are unsafe because 'not everybody who has anger issues is bad'. Unless that person makes an active effort to keep their temper in check and find healthier outlets for it, they are a time bomb waiting to go off. You do not want to be in the blast radius. Period.

To the autism community, I see you. My son is also developmentally disabled and I will fight all the way to hell to stand up for your and his rights. You are loved, you are important, and you don't deserve half the BS you deal with.

Forward this to every person you know who voted for Trump. Especially the Republicans who voted for him three times.