I grew up in a very religious conservative home. My parents love LOTR, Narnia, Marvel, Star Wars, etc.
But we weren’t allowed to read Harry Potter. The reason given was that “fictional magic is usually ok, but HP is teaching you that anyone can go to a magic school and learn witchcraft.”
Now, you have to understand that they believed in real-life witchcraft. Real people apparently draw pentagrams, contact demons, and get effective results. They had cautionary tales about Ouija boards gone wrong, and that sort of thing.
But imagine my surprise when I grew up and married someone who is a huge HP fan, and I finally watched all the movies and listened to the audiobooks. And guess what? It’s literally the fucking opposite of “anyone can learn witchcraft.” It’s literally about people who are born with or without the ability do magic and the fascist villain wants to torture, enslave, and kill non-magic people.
So where did my parents get their entirely wrong idea? From some Satanic Panic fearmongering fundamentalist/evangelical leader. Maybe it was the same one who told them that “any music with drums is basically pornography.”
So nah, I don’t think it’s about women authors - that’s probably another issue. It’s whether the works are popular enough and have enough buzz words that some religious leader is able to latch onto it and scare people into being outraged by it, banking on the assumption that they won’t actually read it.
In fact, that’s a running theme - assume people won’t think for themselves or learn any facts about anything they’re told be outraged about.
You are human. Accept that imperfection is a built-in feature. No one is going make 100% of people happy. It’s not possible.
95% is great. Your lessons are more successful than most, I reckon. You know if you’re doing a good job or not. You’re the expert here - not the 5%.
You have to accept that you can’t control how other people feel, how things affect them, or how they behave. Your lessons may just not reach certain types, and that is probably not your fault. It may not be their fault either, but they may not understand that.
Students (especially teenagers and often college-age) often think they know the one right way that everything should be done. They’ll find out eventually, hopefully, that their views aren’t infallible, or they’ll grow up to be insufferable. Many students are also just vindictive in reviews if they find out a class isn’t as easy as they expected or if they got a bad grade when they didn’t study. The possibilities are so endless that you’ll just drive yourself insane if you try to take every criticism at face value, when they may well be mostly fiction. (Your being upset by the negative reviews may be their intention.)
Look at other reviews of other instructors, teachers, professors, etc. and you’ll see a pattern. Grade yourself on a curve.
Google search has some features that alternative search engines don’t. I use DuckDuckGo for 99% of everything, but I occasionally use Google to see local busy hours, or sometimes any hours, reviews, phone numbers without navigating a shitty website, etc.
I think there are ways to break up Google search on its own, and make some of those features separate and accessible on other search engines.
Then there’s the matter of advertising, data collection, SEO, exclusivity with corporations like Reddit, etc.
Google is doing things with its search that seem to intentionally reduce the ability of other search engines to compete with them, and that’s really all that the antitrust laws are meant to prevent.
Oh it just means he acquired a servant that has 30+ years experience in old timey hat making. But he’s rich, so we speak as if it’s him that’s doing it.
“They roasted them alive. Not just the men, but the women and children too. Every last one of them. And then they ate them. Those fucking bears ate the whole crew. And then they used their skulls as drums for their fucked up dance music. We never should’ve blown up the Death Star. Now we need to take them out the old way. One at a time.”
My anecdotal experience: I’ve seen more people I know get COVID in the last month than I ever have, including myself for the first time since 2020, and it’s weird because it’s been the persistently hottest weather I can recall in my area too. Maybe it’s because more people have been staying inside with AC than usual because of that, but I’m still worried about the colder months this year.
It’s good that it seems to be less deadly than it was when it was new, thanks to vaccines, but it’s still an awful experience to get it. I had a different symptom every day for a week, and 2 weeks later I still feel fatigued, like I can’t get enough sleep.
You still get bugs in produce. Always wash produce. Broccoli can have silkworms hiding in the bulbs - especially organic or homegrown, which is difficult or impossible to clean in that case. I personally don’t buy organic broccoli because of that.
But he’s talking about finding worms in fish. Of all the food to be served with worms in it, fish is the most horrifying IMO. I hope they were dead at least.
My theory is that [Tinfoil hat] there was a ketchup packet lodged in the rolls of his neck from lunch that day, and it popped when he was startled by the gunshots. He was unaware that he lost the condiment there, and it was unintentional. He genuinely thought it was blood until it trickled into his mouth, after which he raised his fist in relief, yelling “Heinz Heinz Heinz” to the crowd. [/Tinfoil hat]
Can someone just make a montage of Republican divisive and violent rhetoric going back to the 80s when Gingrich started screaming at an empty room about how Democrats are all corrupt and want to destroy the country? I know it’s a big ask to make a weeks-long video, but you could chop it up into 1000 parts or so.
I grew up in a very religious conservative home. My parents love LOTR, Narnia, Marvel, Star Wars, etc.
But we weren’t allowed to read Harry Potter. The reason given was that “fictional magic is usually ok, but HP is teaching you that anyone can go to a magic school and learn witchcraft.”
Now, you have to understand that they believed in real-life witchcraft. Real people apparently draw pentagrams, contact demons, and get effective results. They had cautionary tales about Ouija boards gone wrong, and that sort of thing.
But imagine my surprise when I grew up and married someone who is a huge HP fan, and I finally watched all the movies and listened to the audiobooks. And guess what? It’s literally the fucking opposite of “anyone can learn witchcraft.” It’s literally about people who are born with or without the ability do magic and the fascist villain wants to torture, enslave, and kill non-magic people.
So where did my parents get their entirely wrong idea? From some Satanic Panic fearmongering fundamentalist/evangelical leader. Maybe it was the same one who told them that “any music with drums is basically pornography.”
So nah, I don’t think it’s about women authors - that’s probably another issue. It’s whether the works are popular enough and have enough buzz words that some religious leader is able to latch onto it and scare people into being outraged by it, banking on the assumption that they won’t actually read it.
In fact, that’s a running theme - assume people won’t think for themselves or learn any facts about anything they’re told be outraged about.