"Amerikkka runs on genocide"

“Make America Nothing Again”

Here, have this warehouse fire tracker. 120 as of posting this:

I do my damnedest never to bring it up and if someone else does, I try to let it wither in the air and go about my business. It sucks but engaging with it eats into range time.

For example, as we were checking in last time, a young black dude came out of the range to get earmuffs because his ear plugs weren't cutting it. The kid was polite and just trying to do what we're supposed to but the second he was gone the guy at the desk turns to us and says, "Bet you anything the stereo in his car is ten times louder than our range! 😉"

I just looked him in the eye and said, "What do you mean?"

He said "Dumb joke" and finished ringing us up. That's about as well as I think that could've gone.

1) no matter how many guns or friends you have, you can't outgun the state in 2026.

2) The majority of gun owners are more afraid of losing their toys and treats than they are of the state deciding to come get them. They believe those liberties will only ever flow from one party. Both major parties are perfectly happy for people to keep thinking that because the state doesn't see armed civilians as a meaningful threat and it's a useful football to bicker over.

For example, people flipped out over the bump-stock ban. A bumpstock is a stock that lets you pull the action forward against your finger so the recoil bounces it back and forth, allowing you to RATATATAT the whole magazine away in about 3 seconds like a machine gun. It gave people the simulation of full-auto without having to get the expensive permits you need for a real full-auto weapon.

It's fun and noisy but it's just an easy way to burn ammo or commit a mass casualty event. It's a range toy that lets people get around what they see as a pointless regulation and closing that loophole made some people act like King George just ate their lunch. There are tons of loophole guns and accessories like this that are technically illegal but can't be restricted without an act of congress because the language of the law doesn't explicitly forbid them.

Lots of shooters and collectors own a gun or two that would absolutely be illegal again if we went back to the laws we used to have in the 80s and 90s. So liberties become a carrot one wing dangles while using any attempt to actually regulate as proof that the other wing is itching to ban every gun, knife, and big stick. What'll they ban next? Dogs?!

The politicians love it, the gun companies love it, and the loss of that tension is more threatening than the potential for violence to land at their well-protected doors.

Even if they're not pleased with the policies and abuse, people who don't think it'll land on them don't want to rock the boat that keeps them afloat. They don't want to raise that specter because it might not look so kindly on the loopholes and privileges they enjoy.

Most gun-owners like the idea of self defense a lot more than the reality of it because their actual lives have never been meaningfully threatened. They believe they'll know the threat when they see it, but they've been trained to think it looks like home invasions, foreign terrorists, drug addicts, Anarchists, and Feds with pronouns on their windbreakers. They may never fire a shot in anger but they feel better if it feels like an option.

Toxic gun culture conditions you to understand a "threat" as a thing trying to end your life right now, not the gradual erosion of one group's rights and protections as a back door to consolidate power. We're taught that's what laws and the constitution are there to prevent, so don't worry about it.

but you deserve to give informed consent to that process.

the lies around pregnancy - that it's inherently safe, that it doesn't do you permanent damage, that it's only extremely rare for people to die of pregnancy complications, etc like

all of these are lies constructed so that more people will get pregnant w/o knowing all that

there needs to be more talk about the impact of miscarriages and how common they are, how different abortion processes are and how accessible they are

but also like. talking about how pregnancy fucks your body up should not be taboo

this is a process that permanently changes most people's bodies, and that's even if the pregnancy doesn't do them like. severe illness or injury

and i just think everybody should have a right to KNOW that

When I was pregnant I was in a million forums for pregnant people because (cough adhd hyperfixation) and I had something called SPD (Symphysis pubis dysfunction) (not Sensory Processing Disorder though I also have that) which is where your pubic bones separate early (more or less) because they get all loosey goosey as your body gets ready to crank that baby out.

Except my pubic bone got confused and got misaligned at like 3 months pregnant. I could barely walk. I couldn't roll over in bed. Doing something that required me to shift my weight from one foot to another like opening a door knob was like an excruciatingly painful knife being stabbed into my pubic bone, I can't express how intense and blinding it was.

So I am in one million baby forums like "am I dying what is happening why is there a knife in my pubic bone" and all these people are like "I have that too! my doctor says it's normal and not to worry because it doesn't hurt the baby. I just deal with it by laying in bed for months in excruciating pain and think about how lucky I am to be having a little miracle growing in my body."

So lol nope. I went to my midwife and they are like, "Oh squeeze a can between your knees look up a physical therapy youtube on SPD" and I did that can-squeeze thing and it CURED THE PROBLEM in ONE DAY. I had been SUFFERING, y'all, it felt miraculous.

And I was so full of rage (flames, flames on the side of my face) that people are being told "Oh, it's NORMAL just deal with it" "It doesn't hurt the baby." Like, look, yes it's NORMAL but it's 100% treatable!!! SPD (again, not Sensory processing disorder) affects 1 in 5 pregnant people.

I was lucky to have amazing midwives (need a gender neutral term for that profession, but they see pregnant men and women)(side note highly recommend midwives if you are gender nonconfirming/a man/etc) and I have DOZENS of examples of shit like this.

Some people in moderate car crashes are very lucky, and walk away with zero injury. Some are very unlucky, and die. But most people fall into the third category, where they'll be injured at the time, then heal, and then for the rest of their life they have some minor and liveable complication from the injury. Like a knee that lets you know when the rain is coming, or a back that doesn't like seats without lumbar support, or a shoulder that never quite gets its full range of motion back.

she's been suffering with this since she gave birth to me. I'm 38 years old. she had that surgery last week.

Whether that was that they have psychotic features as a part of their bipolar disorder, depression or PTSD. Or that they have seen a shadow of a person out of the corner of their eye, or a delusion that some entity is after them. Even if it was just a single instance of hearing a voice that wasn't real that stuck with them.

It seems like when I break the barrier of stigma and silence, people feel comfortable enough to share their own experiences and I love that.

Psychotic experiences are extremely common. Anecdotally, it seems that everyone has had at least one hallucination, delusion or instance of paranoia in their life. And I wish everyone was able to talk about these experiences, and how they've affected them without fear of shame or panic from the people around them. This is a normal thing that brains do for whatever reason. It shouldn't be seen as bad unless it negatively affects someone, and then you should listen with care and see if the person needs help in any way.

That's why acceptance for those of us with disorders like schizophrenia is so important. If you can hear a schizophrenic person out, and not treat us like we are dangerous or scary. See as equal human beings that happen to have these experiences. Only then will the pathway for everyone to share their experiences with psychosis be open and normalized.