I don’t block unless it’s excessive spam. Informational disadvantage, yadda yadda.

I just exercise the same muscle I use to restrain myself from responding to bait on modern day Reddit, since my account there is still active but not posting (yes, even lurking is technically contribution, but there’s too much useful information there for me to justify completely cutting it out).

And for the record, I disagree with block features removing posts from the user on the other end. Public information -> only I get to decide what I do and don’t see. Private information -> only I get to decide what I do and don’t share. A bit idealistic, but we’re talking about a web forum here.

I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with being proud of impersonal achievements. If one of your parents did something considered pretty great, I think it’s generally fine to be proud of it, even though you had no agency in being born to them.

As with anything, though, it’s very possible to take it to the extreme. If an achievement or value becomes your entire personality and you begin to actively disparage others on the basis of not-being-that, as you said, that’s when I call it one of the bad “-isms.”

I see nationalism as a range within that of patriotism, but starting at that extremist point.

Guess who becomes much easier to brainwash and control when the kids of this generation don’t have access to unfederated information and educational outlets?

The adults of next generation!

Fuck this new world order.

That corny ass song from a few years back:

“I don’t wanna be alive, I just wanna die today”

->

“I wanna be alive, I don’t wanna die today”

I wanted to make an ironic, exaggerated comment here, but irony doesn’t really work when it is 100% in line with what these people would actually say.

Change is so slow because this country has managed to form and propogate such a thoroughly oppressive system, that to call it out is to only reinforce what the people have been taught since day one.

These “freedom people” want their privilege so bad that they are willing to keep a monarch/oligarch in office who will perpetuate an oppressive system under the guise of ignorance.

I’ve recently been trying to train myself to lucid dream frequently. The first thing anyone will tell you is to keep a dream journal, and holy shit does it help. Started journaling them on the 2nd of January, and even just a week later I started having very vivid dreams every night. All senses included; and as of a couple days ago, fairly critical thinking (mental math). I haven’t managed to have a “lucid dream” yet, but I’ll get there.

For the sake of completeness, a lucid dream is a dream in which you’ve become aware that you are dreaming. Whether you can control the dream or feel that it’s vivid is a separate concern.

Pretty cool stuff.

Although this wasn’t really what I was asking at the time, it’s good general advice, and I’ll try it out. Thanks for your time and input.

Instagram differs from Reddit in the sense that most people use Instagram because that’s where their friends and family are. You’re posting more personal things there. An alternative doesn’t really work for most users if no one they know is using it. Good luck with the push, though.