I’m not going to tell you any of that. All I’ll say to you is that I’m incredibly sorry for the trauma you’ve endured; you didn’t deserve to be treated like that, it’s not your fault, and you deserve to be loved and cared for. My heart breaks for you, and I hope so much that you can find the love and support you need. I believe that you can and you will. This world is a hard, cold place sometimes, but there is light and love in it, and I wish so much for you to find your share of it. I guarantee you that there are people in your community who will want to connect with you, if you can find the strength to keep reaching out.

I know it can be frustrating to receive all this advice from strangers online, who don’t know the specific challenges you’re facing, but I just want to point out that this little community sees you and cares about you.

You deserve community; you deserve to be seen and loved for who you are. I’m sorry that your birth family was too stupid and cruel to see you for who you really are, but that doesn’t mean that that love and support is denied to you forever. I’m just some random dude on the internet, but I see you and I want good things for you. I guarantee there are people around you that want that connection with you. When you’re fighting just to survive it’s incredibly difficult to find the energy to search out those connections but I promise it’s worth it. Please don’t despair.

Stupid shot is pretty much their only area of expertise!

The only unbelievable part of this one is that there would have to be someone competent in the Trump campaign!

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/bernie-sanders-israel-gaza-democrats-vote-b2799185.html

He’s on record as supporting an arms embargo on Israel

Exactly - this is a pretty good overview of the idea and the research behind it. We’ve always wanted to believe that people are fundamentally rational beings but it just isn’t true lol.

Most people vote on vibes - that’s what the data always shows. They follow their peers, community, maybe a trusted authority figure. They are not, and have never been informed on issues, and they aren’t interested in learning more about them. I think those of us who do try to stay informed fall into the trap of thinking “if these folks were only better educated about this issue they would vote differently”. But that has never been and will never be true. Gotta project better vibes, baby!

There are plenty of Americans who suffer from the exact same kind of social anxiety and lack of social confidence that you’re describing. If you’re only meeting or observing Americans who are traveling or living in Germany then your sample is skewed towards the kind of people who have the confidence and experience to travel internationally.

It sounds to me like you would benefit from talking to a therapist who could help you manage your social anxiety, but if you didn’t want to do that for whatever reason, I would try treating small talk as a skill that you’re trying to get better at. Set yourself a small daily goal - like having one chat about the weather with a cashier while you’re shopping. You can’t skip right to being an expert at small talk; you need to gain confidence and experience. I would like to say to you, in my experience, it’s easiest to talk about things you’re interested in or passionate about. Are there any groups or clubs that meet to engage in hobbies you like? A group like that can help you break through the awkwardness of not knowing what to talk about.

Personally, I think you sound like a thoughtful, interesting person, and I bet you’d be fun to talk to. Don’t be so hard on yourself, and remember that everyone has these feelings; it’s perfectly natural and not something to get down on yourself about. Sorry for writing a whole novel, but I hope this was helpful in some small way!

I think the fundamental truth here is that any relationship requires conscious effort from both parties. One person alone can’t carry that weight. If your friend wants to salvage this relationship then I think they need to convince their partner to pursue individual therapy, and also they need to talk to a couples counselor together. Without professional help I think it’s going to be very difficult to shift the dynamic here. That being said, life is short, and you can waste years hoping that someone will change. Sometimes you have to make the hard choice to move on.

Are you like, on the Halliburton payroll or something?

He’s also trying to draw attention away from the illegal deportations they did over the weekend.

Imagine taking anything James Carville has to say seriously, or unironically using the word “woke” to describe things, or reading a Breitbart “article”. The mind boggles…truly a mysterious country in there lol.

I think you’re going to keep finding reasons why it’s Ukraine’s fault no matter what I or anyone say!s! I won’t waste any more time on this. The fact remains that Russia has broken pretty much every agreement they’ve ever struck with Ukraine since at least 2014, and Ukraine has zero incentive to enter into a new one without the force to ensure it’s followed. Their only choice is to try and wear Russia down with prolonged conflict.

Except, again, there’s no reason to believe that Russia was negotiating in good faith, and it sounds like the inclusion of security guarantees from the West is one of the reasons the talks broke down.

Again, Russia has broken basically every treaty and agreement they’ve ever made with Ukraine.

https://thedispatch.com/article/russia-history-broken-treaties-agreements/?signup=success

Simply put, the Russians can’t be trusted to honor any agreement that’s not backed up by force. Their “terms” aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. They’ve never honored any agreement they’ve made with Ukraine, and as long as Putin is in power they never will.

They want to privatize everything and drive us into technocratic feudalism with folks like Musk and Thiel at the top

Gavin Newsom is everything that is wrong with the Democratic establishment. Phony-ass, performative, spineless opportunist.

Bud, Russia is aggressive because Putin’s entire rise to power was built on manufactured fear. He likely used FSB agents to execute false flag attacks on Russian citizens and blame it on Chechen separatists. He has had to build on that fear to maintain power, developing a mythological Imperial past that was “stolen” by the west. Conquering Ukraine is the first step in “resurrecting” that glorious fiction. Russia will not stop pursuing this fever dream until Putin and his government are gone - they can’t. It’s basically the only thing keeping them in power. I don’t like wars either, but until we can collectively figure out how to stop these authoritarian impulses there just isn’t any alternative. It’s the paradox of tolerance, essentially

“But if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn’t very strong to begin with."

I mean, it was more than a couple hundred thousand dollars here in the States, but that’s exactly what has us on the ropes. Propaganda and misinformation delivered via social media is destroying democracy all across the western world.

It’s hard not to be angry at the legion of angry, scared, dimwits that voted for this. It’s also just not productive. In the end, what’s the point of that anger? We have to figure out how to reach those people, and how to cut through the fog of misinformation and propaganda that they are lost in. Things are just going to get worse and worse unless we do.