That’s awesome. As long as they are the ones doing the recycling I have faith it’s being done. Shipping it to China (although I think they stopped taking trash) or India or wherever. I don’t trust that. But in house in Sweden, good on them.

Where does Sweden actually do the recycling? Like do they have their own recycling facilities, or do they ship it to China or somewhere like most countries?

So, here is a story I like to share about learning kindness and empathy.

A little background. I grew up in a poor city right outside Birmingham, Al. All the kids I grew up with including myself had racist, homophobic parents. In return all the kids I grew up with including me were also racist and homophobic. When you grow up where I did with a silent generation dad and greatest generation grandparents from rural Alabama. You aren’t taught “hate”. You’re taught the way it’s always been.

I dropped out of school in the 9th grade. I got my GED and graduated college, but while I was working on all that I worked at Walmart when I was 16. I dated a girl that worked there and when we broke up I started dating a different girl that worked there a few days later.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and this loud and flamboyant twink named Joe that was our age tells my ex and current girlfriends that I dated them both at the same time. Then proceeded to drive both of them to my house where both chicks came in my house and yelled at me for a bit. When I walked outside I saw Joe in the driver seat of one of the girls car.

I figured that they probably met up at Walmart and I was going to beat the shit out of Joe. So, I jumped in my car and raced to Walmart. When they pulled up for Joe to get his car. I was sitting on the trunk of Joe’s car waiting. Fortunately, they left, and what follows is not great, but was necessary for me to learn a lesson.

After they left I was so angry that I used my key to carve the F slur so big that it took up Joes entire trunk lid. Nothing came of it for a few days. Then my phone rang. I can remember it like yesterday. A grown man asked for my name. I said I was he. He said that his name was Ronnie. (If you’ve read my other stuff this isn’t the same Ronnie that killed people.)

Anyway, Ronnie explained that he was Joe’s boyfriend. He told me that what I had done didn’t hurt Joe. He explained that he (Ronnie) was going to have to pay to have the trunk fixed. He appealed to my empathy, but he also treated me like a man. Could/should he have called the cops? Absolutely, but instead he decided to approach me like a man and explain the situation.

After he was done. I told him that I’d have to make payments, but that I’d pay to fix Joes car. Ronnie said that was fine. He invited me over for dinner and said that we’d discuss the terms. I agreed.

I don’t remember how much he said it would be, but I know that I paid him installments until it was paid for. During that time I got to know Ronnie really well. He had a monster truck and collected muscle cars. He had 2 Shih Tzus. He was much older than Joe and I. His previous partner had been someone important with State Farm insurance, but had died back in the 80s (this was mid 90s) and left Ronnie money and a house.

All this happened when my dad and I weren’t getting along. I still remember the first time I called Ronnie and asked if I could stay the night. He said yes without hesitation. I got there and he told me the ground rules. He said that I was always allowed at his house, but personal items like toothbrush, razors, and stuff like that were off limits. He said DO NOT MESS WITH THEM.

I was young not stupid. I had seen the real world. I knew that he was probably HIV positive. It wasn’t long before he and Joe broke up. Ronnie started calling on me. Ronnie lived in the country. I lived between the country and big city. He would call and say hey a couple of my friends are sick and I need to take them some food. Would you ride with me.

Anyway, Ronnie was the first person that I had actually interacted with where I had been forced to face someone that I had been lead to believe was different to me. Ronnie gave me a safe place to be when I wasn’t getting along with my dad. I can remember my “friends” at the time making fun of me for hanging out with a gay dude. I didn’t care.

Ronnie taught me more about being a man than my own father did. When he should have just called the cops he took the time to turn hatred into a teachable moment.

If you’re wondering what happened to Ronnie. I hung out with him fairly regularly until I got on drugs really bad. After my family deserted me. I deserted my friends because I couldn’t live with them hating me for what I had become.

After I got clean I started trying to pick up where I left off. I called all of the good friends I could think of. So, I called Ronnie. A man answered and I asked if Ronnie was there. He quickly asked who I was, and I explained that I was a friend. He said that he was Ronnie’s brother and Ronnie had passed away a few years earlier due to complications from HIV. He said that he got some kind of dementia.

We talked about 2 hours. I told him about how Ronnie had taught me about empathy. He said Ronnie had done the same for him. Ronnie was one of the greatest men I’ve ever known.

I went from regularly having 60+ scam calls a day. To around 3 a week in the course of like 3 months. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The stupid part is that the scam calls weren’t even for me. They would ask for the guy that had this number before me.

Mine goes as follows.

Them: Hello I’m looking for…

Me: Mmmmmmmmm fuck yeah god damn your dick smells so fucking hot.

Them: Excuse me sir???

Me: I said your dick smells fucking hot. You wanna meet up later and get tongue deep in each others ass holes.

Them: :click:

I don’t get many scam calls or bill collectors anymore. The trick is that you ONLY do it when they call you. In other words don’t call them and harass them. If it’s a legit company it might even be illegal for that company to make their employees call someone that sexually harasses their employees. Also if it’s a woman i usually describe the smell of the genitalia. Otherwise it’s the same.

A lot of Indian dudes are homophobic as hell. To add to the awkwardness of the conversation I lower my voice to make it real deep. Then I say each word slowly and breathy. That way I know they hear me and each word kind of hangs there for a second.

Check nekandro comment history. It’s like wumao talking points 101.

For me personally, I got into a lot of drawn out arguments on Reddit. I said some LGBTQ performers doing a performance that involved a cross was “child friendly” and for 8 months I still got messages from pearl clutching conservatives calling me a pe**. Here, I try to limit my hot takes to 24 hours of engagement, and I try to be more respectful.

Also, I’d like to think that there is a better class of people here than on Reddit. So, I act accordingly. I like my new home. It’s not totally full of assholes yet, and I don’t fancy creating any.

So, you’re close but wrong country. Russia tried to get rid of religion but failed. The Russian Orthodox Church just kind of became part of the government. That’s why you see the priests blessing Russian weapons and stuff.

China on the other hand did get rid of religion pretty successfully. The reason communism strives to get rid of religion is because when people aren’t arguing over who’s imaginary supernatural friend loves his people more. It’s easier to get them to agree on things.

Now, I’m not going to pretend that this is a perfect plan. After all successfully getting rid of religion comes with a whole new set of pitfalls. But, I personally think the pros outweigh the cons.

So, I’m not a psychiatrist. I am, However, a parent to a child who receives disability for autism. The hacker has also been reported to be autistic. Now I’m not going to talk about how different autism can be from one person to the next, but one of the first things you are taught is to try and redirect their negative behaviors into something more positive.

In this case that could look something like. “Hey, instead of illegally hacking companies. How about you come to work for the government and have a high paying job hacking for us.” You know that sort of thing.

The kid is talented. Sitting in a prison of any kind is wasting those talents. He would still need a lot of supervision in the above scenario. But he’d still be doing what he loves and presumably contributing to society.

I said pretty much the same thing to my partner the other day. This poor kid is a god damned genius, and now he’s just wasted potential. I can think of several ways to redirect that energy for the good of mankind and I’m an idiot. So for his potential to be wasted like this seems malicious to me.

I feel like this is a young persons question. I’m old enough that I’ve been dealing with myself for a long time. I’ve come to terms with everything. I’m fine with myself. It’s all the external factors that are hard. The direction of the world governments, the climate, the price of things. If I could just exist in a vacuum. I’d be pretty happy with that.

Oh I knew all that. I just wanted to let you know that I also respect your struggle, and that all struggles are worth it in the end.

Thank you for the kind words though. As a grown man praise doesn’t come very often.

Hey, quitting cigarettes is no small feat. There are enough things holding us back in life without adding to it. Quitting cigarettes is one choice I guarantee you won’t regret.

Also, don’t sell yourself short. You say “little league clean”, but the process is the same. Be proud of your wins. There will be enough problems in life. Take those wins where you can.

I went from heroin to methadone, and methadone to nothing. It fucking SUCKS. I hate being around people. I used to be quite the social butterfly. I have hacked away at the people I let into my life down to one friend. I hate people so much that it’s hard to put up with my partner and kids. Loud noises make me irrationally angry. I don’t leave the house unless I HAVE to. Since I got sober I have dreams where I talk to my friends that died from overdoses.

I had a dream where a woman I knew that died of an overdose came to visit me. She sat on the sofa next to me and put her head on my shoulder. When I woke up I could still feel her hair on my face.

I hate being sober. I wish that weed didn’t make me anxious. I wish alcohol didn’t make me feel like shit. I didn’t like uppers before I got sober. Opiates aren’t even an option.

But you know what? As much as being sober fucking sucks, and it does suck make no mistake about it. I won’t die a slave. I am free. I am finally free, and I’m not giving my freedom away again for anyone or anything. I’ve been heroin free for about 5 years. I’m almost 2 years completely sober.

I have no idea, but looking back on it this is my guess. I was 18 at the time. I am like I said 6’2” which is way taller than most people there. I am white and at the time had long hair that was done in Bo Derek micro braids.

My guess is he moves weight in weed and hash. He saw some guy looking like a hippy from the US and decided to feel me out. They were super nice.

So I’m walking around a bazaar in Nepal. I got kids following me everywhere begging for money. Out of nowhere a Nepalese guy wearing a ripped up shirt comes running up and starts slapping kids and yelling at them. The kids run off and the man starts cozying up to me.

He starts asking where I’m from and follows me around for a while. Finally he cuts the foreplay and asks if I “smoke hashish”. I say yeah and we talk about that a while. He asked where I was staying and I told him Hotel Yak and Yetti. He says he’ll come by and smoke with me.

So, at the time he was supposed to show up I’m in the lobby when a hotel worker comes over and says that someone is looking for me. I walk outside and the dude is now wearing a tailored suit and is motioning for me to get in a cab.

Alarm bells go off, but fuck it you only live once. I get in the back of the cab with the guy. He has a pack of cigarettes where he emptied out the tobacco and filled them with weed. He says his cousin is the driver. We ride and smoke. I got so fucken high.

Then he’s like hey buy the rest of this pack from me. I was like dude I don’t have much money. He’s asks if I have some clothes that don’t fit. I’m 6’2” this guy was like 5’. But I’m like yeah and gave him 2 pairs of jeans.

Then I had to flush the weed because I was getting on a plane to Tibet the next morning. Staying in a Chinese prison wasn’t on my itinerary. So I had to leave the weed behind.

I mean I think that the reasons are just as varied as people themselves. I think a lot of times it’s tradition in the sense that their parents believed it, there parent’s parents believed in it. So, it’s easy to just do what everyone else does.

Then you have, especially in Islamic countries a situation where their religion is everything. From the government, to the judicial system, to the education system, and of course the religion. It’s a way to control the masses. I think it was Hitler that said “He alone that owns the youth gains the future”. Indoctrinate your people early and reinforce it every step of the way.

Then you also have a situation where Muslims pray multiple times a day. Once again this just reinforces the indoctrination, but it also serves as a constant reminder that if you “sin” bad things will happen.

All of these things and more help to cement a tight grip on a population. There is a YouTube channel hosted by an ex-Muslim that I find interesting. The dude is way smarter than I. The channel is called “Apostate Aladdin”. He does a great job of explaining things in easy to digest ways.

In what way specifically?

Alabama, USA

And then we’ll take higher.

https://youtu.be/IuwxZSIS__4?feature=shared