I never thought you were being inflammatory or attacking me, but thank you for an apology/clarification even if it wasn't necessary. I thought your response provided valuable perspective, and reminded us all that people are a diverse group that defies blanket categorization. I asked for your feedback because I legitimately didn't know how to fold that into my post, which as I said was the truth of what I experienced. I also wanted to help divorce criticism of people like Elon Musk from "accusations" of mental disability, which I don't feel should be an accusation or "gotcha".

After over 25 years of work of varying intensity with psychiatrists, I'm legally permanently disabled because of mental illness and I have lived on permanent disability for several years. I'm lucky in that I'm physically and mentally capable, so most people won't even know until they are close enough to me to start learning about my lifestyle and day-to-day experience. Even so I've experienced a fair bit of both well-meaning and malicious misunderstanding. Those misunderstandings are of course worse and more consistent for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, and I don't want to be part of that. That's why I'm taking our conversation seriously.

I'm not going to delete my post because I stand beside what I said, but I did include the following edit: "Edit: Following discussion below, I think it would be right and humanizing to add a reminder to myself and others. Although my time with that particular group was positive, the mentally disabled are people like any of us and each will be different in terms of friendliness, happiness, and social capability."

I don't think that short addition will interrupt the flow or message of my post, and will address some of the context you've provided.

That's an interesting addition and I have no reason to doubt you. It's quite possible the people I saw regularly were there exactly because they were inclined to be friendly and happy. It probably also helps that they were closely accompanied by professionals. I can only comment on my experience with them, and what I wrote was accurate to that. I mean, one guy who was more physically able would do curls with me and call me Superman and I called him Batman. The reason I started talking to them is one really thin girl stopped while doing laps in a group and told me she loved me. I still smile thinking about those moments.

I honestly don't know if I agree that it's harmful to relay my couple of years interacting with the intellectually disabled as I did. It's definitely the truth of my experience. At the same time I can completely believe it's not the whole truth, and varies by individual. After all, I would only spend 10-30 minutes working out while they were nearby before I moved on. I'd definitely continue to insist that even the nasty folks aren't doing anywhere near as much damage to global society as Elon Musk though.

Do you think I should change my post? And if so - how, given what I've written in this reply? Edit: after thinking about it, perhaps your followup will be enough to provide context?

This is an insult to people that would have been given that label in those days. Those folks are some of the happiest, friendliest people I've ever met. Until a couple years ago I used to work out a city gym and interact with a group of the intellectually disabled who would come in for exercise. They told me they loved me, worked out with me, laughed with me and they were one of the best parts of gym time.

Edit: Following discussion below, I think it would be right and humanizing to add a reminder to myself and others. Although my time with that particular group was very positive, the mentally disabled are people like any of us and each will be different in terms of friendliness, happiness, and social capability.

Musk runs propaganda platforms, fights unions, visits Epstein islands, buys elections, and is THE example of the oligarchy that is in a very real way ruining the world and destroying hope. He has no right to be given a label that would historically place him in the same category as the people I knew for years.

In addition to my other comment, this is applicable: Harris didn't lose the election because of Gaza or protest voters - "the election was not close enough for the war to be a decisive factor". Harvard research and Harris polls place Gaza as 15th among voter's primary concerns. She lost because she ran what Bernie Sanders called a "disastrous campaign" that abandoned working class Americans. Instead of listening to and solidifying support among her base, she tried to court conservatives with moves like campaigning with the fucking Cheneys(!) and running commercials about wives secretly voting for her and hiding the truth from their husbands.

Democrats need to stop playing center field politically, and stop blaming left-leaning voters or protest voters for their party's failure to listen to the concerns of their base.

Pick a different subject to talk about Harris vs. Trump votes. There are arguments with a lot of merit, but this isn't one them. Like the Palestinians said, it's already hell. A hell of destroyed hospitals, schools and housing, of war crimes like murdered children, manufactured famine, rape, and torture...all with complete support from a Democrat President and large parts of his party.

Trump is going to create a lot of ruin if he accomplishes 10% of what he promises, but with the story being Trump's approach to Gaza, stop pretending as if Biden has done better or Kamala would. On that issue it's not as if either candidate would have done fuck all about Gaza other than continue to support the ethnic cleansing. There's a reason Biden will be remembered as Genocide Joe. He repeatedly, explicitly affirmed the USA's COMPLETE support of Israel and acted in accordance with that. He did nothing when Israel crossed "red lines" except provide Israel with more weapons and money. At least we're spared the torturous, blatant hypocrisy of "we're committed to peace" on the same week billions in arms deals are signed.

Let me head off rebuttals that amount to "but at least Harris might have tried". She also explicitly confirmed continued support for Israel, and offered zero credible objections to blank cheque support as VP. The only thing the world could have expected from her were more "serious concerns" speeches.

Edit: And I don't give even the slightest damn about downvotes. Both Dems and Republicans are HORRIFIC regarding this war, which has met the standard for genocide and is riddled with war crimes. I'm not going to shut up about it or pretend Harris would have been better because of popularity. Asking if protest voters feel stupid because Trump says it's going to be hell is a resounding no, because people are right in saying it's been that for over a year. America's policy was already incredibly evil with no change even hinted at from Kamala and more of the same promised. And no, I'm not a protest voter (I'm Canadian and told people to vote Harris anyways because I agreed with Bernie Sanders), I'm not Russian, or Israeli, or a fascist, or a communist, or a bot.

I've been online since the days of dial-up, and even places like 4chan had containment boards specifically set aside for jackasses. If you went to one of those you knew what you were getting into. Not that you wouldn't find it on other boards, but the content elsewhere was mostly memes, life stories, cooking, vidya, shock content and so on. You could always find stupidity and hatred, but it's way more common now in terms of # of people posting. With the removal of moderation Facebook is set to become the new /pol/ but sitewide.

It was directly related to the post above. "People should do this" -> "I actually just finished doing that." It's not like I came here to brag out of nowhere. Why are you ignoring that in favor of picking a fight?

Thanks for the heads up. I can see how that would happen. In my case I posted literally once or twice a year since 2020 or so, and the last time I talked to anyone other than family was 6 months ago. I have several dozen "friends" that will see the post, but leaving likely won't affect much other than them being able to see photographs on FB/Instagram. Everyone I actually interact with knows other ways to contact me.

I wrote my deletion post just a few hours ago actually. Cited sexism, homophobia, anti-immigration, no more fact-checking etc. I said I'd leave the account up for a few days in case anyone wanted to arrange a way to stay in contact (since I've had friends there since 2007), but after that I'm gone.

Come on now. "Jewish" can of course refer to the religion of Judaism but "Jew" is definitely a term for an ethnicity, both in common usage and more formal realms.

Who is a Jew? "Jewish identity is also commonly defined through ethnicity. Opinion polls have suggested that the majority of modern Jews see being Jewish as predominantly a matter of ancestry and culture, rather than religion." "The term "Jew" lends itself to several definitions beyond simply denoting one who practices Judaism."

If you don't like Wikipedia "Jews are a distinct ethnicity due to a combination of shared cultural, historical, and ancestral ties. Below are some examples of key factors that make Jews an ethnicity..."

University of Michigan, "Religion or Ethnicity? : The Evolution of Jewish Identities". "Jewish identity has been defined as an ethnicity, a nation, a culture, and even a race."

Pew Research "Religion is not central to the lives of most U.S. Jews. Even Jews by religion are much less likely than Christian adults to consider religion to be very important in their lives (28% vs. 57%)."

Israel is not Jewish people.

That's exactly what I said, and I said it because it's necessary to remind people of that. Antisemitism is absolutely on the rise, so the distinction matters to me.

Israel claims that the 27 hospitals and 12 other health facilities they've bombed hid Hamas. Rape, murder, torture, hiding behind civilians, illegally abusing things like medical immunity...every accusation is a confession. What a wretched country. And to be clear: I don't mean all Jews - just the ones perpetrating this ethnic cleansing and their allies whether Jewish or not. Couldn't care less about where they were born or their genetics, just what they're doing in full view.