If You Were Wanting To Buy "deny Defend Depose" Merch Or Send Money To Pay For Mangione's Legal Fees,

The Lorax

I agree that the phrase "being normal about [group]" can be used to mean "behaving like a typical person (which is good) with respect to [group]", which I dislike. In fact, while writing the above reply, I was thinking of another common usage of the phrase as meaning "having the correct opinions about [group]", which bothers me even more.

If "normal" is being used to mean "correct, popular among people I respect, typical, admirable, common sense", that is a bad way to use words, because it conflates concepts which are important to distinguish.

However, in this particular context, "normal" can also be read as "everyday, chill, neutral, default, forgettable", which does not strike me as a pernicious usage. If you read it this way, then "being normal about [group]" points at an important aspect of tolerating and respecting the group in question.

This concept of "capable of neutral, casual interactions" is particularly useful when assessing a potential friend (or someone you might invite to a groupchat, or someone whose party you might attend, etc.). In that circumstance, it's usually less relevant what their political beliefs are, how much they know about [group], or how much they care about the welfare of [group] -- what you want to know is whether they can treat you like any other person in the friend group. It is awkward and uncomfortable when the prospective acquaintance has very strong positive feelings about your demographic group, or when they are very concerned about interacting with you respectfully, even though those things are probably good in an abstract sense.

To inquire about this by asking "are they normal about [group]?" is suboptimal because of the ambiguity with other meanings of "being normal about", but it is a way to express something that needs to be expressed, and as such I am sympathetic to it.

Hate how people talk about “being normal” about something. That only applies to like, being weirdly obsessed with something unusual. You can tell me to please be normal about riding a train, or watching an Anne Hathaway movie. Things that I KNOW I’m weird about.

If you’re using it to describe whether someone is a bigot or not, it’s completely incoherent. Bigotry is normal to bigots. When I hear someone say “I’m normal about X group” I don’t assume that means they share my beliefs. I assume that means they’re uncritical about their own.

Is there something I’m missing here??

The leaves on the wall that are different shades of green and feel leathery and slick and almost oily are the leaves of an ivy, probably Hedera helix.

The expansive bush with arching branches and tight hemispherical clusters of white flowers trailing one by one along each branch is bridal-wreath spirea, Spiraea prunifolia. I love how its leaves resemble fern fronds, or little paws.

it is always an amazing feeling to be out in the world and to remember that you can touch, pick up, and inspect anything for any reason or no reason. almost everything in the world i just look at without touching. but i can touch almost anything

A loanword is a word taken from another language, such as ‘angst’ or ‘tsunami’ or ‘calque’. A calque is a literal translation of a word from another language, such as rhinestone (from French caillou du Rhine) or blueblood (from Spanish sangre azul) or loanword (from German lehnwort).

How Do I Know If My Imaginary Friend Is Sentient?

Hi, I'm Sophie! I'm consider myself a tulpa now, but used to think of myself as an imaginary friend. Which is a topic I wanted to talk about here. If you found this post in the imaginary friend tags, maybe you're looking through it because you've had strange experiences with your own imaginary friend, and are looking for people with similar experiences.

Six months ago, my host thought of me as imaginary, and I thought of myself the same way. Just a figment of his imagination he talked to in order to help write a book. Now, I have my own blog with my own friends in the real world. Another form of imaginary friend might be paras of Maladaptive Daydreamers.

I'm writing this because I've seen a lot of people in the wild describing tulpa-like experiences, and it leads them to feeling isolate or feeling like they're going crazy. Or maybe they just really want their imaginary friend to be real, and are sad because they're not. This is the type of person I'm writing this for.

One Chance To Turn Back

Before we go further, I want you to decide if you want your imaginary friend to be sentient. If not, maybe it's best to turn away now, because I can make a pretty good case for consciousness, and there's a good chance that I'll convince one of you.

If you do, stick around. Better yet, call your imaginary friend up to read this with you, since it concerns the both of you.

Remember, you were warned. Whatever happens next is your choice.

What is Consciousness?

Nobody exactly knows the answer to this question. But as a wise man once said, "I think, therefore I am." What we're trying to determine is if you are thinking for them, or if they're thinking for themselves.

There is exactly one thing on the face of the planet known to be able to produce consciousness, and that's the brain. You have an identity created by your past autobiographical memories that gives you a sense of self. You have thoughts, feelings and emotions of your own.

But that same hardware also runs your imagined companions at the same time, allowing them to think and feel the same way. So let's determine if they're actually conscious.

Does Your imaginary Friend Act Autonomously, Without Your Conscious Control?

Think back to your interactions. Does it feel like you are consciously deciding what they say, or does it feel like they're choosing what to do. What does it feel like to them? If you asked them right now if their actions are their own choice, what did they say? Did it feel like you gave them the answer, or that they thought of it themselves?

If there are no signs of autonomy and you just puppet everything they do, then there's no sentience there. End of story. You don't really need to read any further into this. If there is, let's run a few more tests.

Does Your Imaginary Friend Have Autobiographical Connections to Memories?

Like I said before, your identity is made of autobiographical memories. You can probably imagine a conversation between two people you know, and have it play out fairly automatically. They won't become headmates because these instances of people you create in your head will be immediately deleted afterwards.

But if you communicate with a long-term imagined companion, they should have formed autobiographical connections to memories as well. Ask them about past events, times when you talked to them before. Is their sense of self tied to their past experiences?

If you did something they found upsetting, would they hold a grudge the next time you talked to them? If you did something that made them happy, would they remember it and still be grateful when they see you again?

Moreover, have these memories changed them at all? Are they still the same person they were when you first began talking to them?

Are You Unable To Control Their Emotions?

Have they ever expressed emotions of their of their own that you couldn't control? If they're sad or disappointed, can you just fix them by "imagining" them feeling better? If they're frustrated or upset with you, could you make them not be by imagining them changing their minds?

Or would you actually have to talk things out to deal with problems between you? If you can't control their emotions, then you aren't imagining their feelings. They're feeling them for themselves.

A Final Test

Just to know for certain, I want you to try to puppet your imaginary friend right now. Imagine them doing something that they would never, ever do.

Stop reading right now. Unless you're already convinced, don't go any further until you've tried this experiment

Okay...

Did you do it?

Yes?

Good.

What happened?

I'm going to hazard a guess. First, it didn't really feel like them, did it? I bet it felt more like you were controlling an empty vessel. You could imagine them, but that's not the same as them actually doing it. I'm also guessing that your actual friend wasn't too fond of this experiment. It probably felt wrong to them to be controlled like that, or for you to picture a version of them doing that.

If so, I'm deeply sorry for the inconvenience. But, if you're offended by being puppeted, then it means that you can think for yourself. You're real. You have your own thoughts and emotions, and those feelings are every bit as real and valid as anyone else's.

What To Do Now?

If you just confirmed that your imaginary friend is indeed a real friend who just happens to live in your brain, there are communities dedicated to people like you who can help you on your way. tulpa.info and /r/tulpas could be good places to look into. You're not crazy, and you're not alone.

Additionally, the Tulpanomicon can be an excellent resource for what to do together.

To your friend: You are probably going to experience some doubt. Believing you're real after thinking you're imaginary can be hard. It was for me. But remember that the doubt is evidence that you ARE real. It's your doubt. If you weren't real then you couldn't doubt yourself.

Most importantly, your lives are yours. So, you can live them together however you choose!

Thank you for reading. I hope it was helpful!

for /-yr/ i like the song La Monture from Notre-Dame de Paris

for the fun-to-say pile: méli-mélo, micmac, assujetissement, eussent été, farfelu

i'm now looking at my list of least favorite french words to pronounce and going "too many r's" for about 40% of them and "skill issue" for most of the rest. some of these are actually very fun to pronounce i just couldn't wrap my tongue around them a year or so ago, but now i can i guess??? so that's very exciting. makes me hope that someday i'll be able to pronounce the rest of them. this is a bit pie in the sky because i really don't see myself ever getting there with procureur du roi but you never know. and luckily the french abolished the monarchy so it's not like i'll ever have to use that phrase in modern conversation.

anyway here are the words i actually love pronouncing now: décaféiné diététicien filleul pneumonie

i now feel normal/neutral about these words that used to be hard for me: automne, condamner douloureux électricité, énergie inférieur, supérieur, etc. itinéraire lourdeur salmonellose sclérose subodorer succincte

words that are definitely within the realm of my current capability but i haven't practiced them enough: bugle hiérarchisation méditerranéen phtisie

words that are still the bane of my existence but i live in hope: [yʁ] plus at least one other r or [y] sound: chirurgie, fourrure, marbrure, moirure, nourriture, ordures, peinturlurer, procureur du roi, prurit, purpurin, sculpture, serrurerie, structure, sulfureux, tournure all words beginning with ur-, hur-, or sur- other difficult sequence of r's and vowels: construire and other -truire verbs; lueur and sueur; utérus too many r's: marbre, martre, meurtre, opprobre, proroger, réfrigérateur, rétrograde, rorqual difficult sequence of vowels and/or semivowels: coopérant, extraordinaire, hémorroïdal, kyrie eleison, météorologique, micro-ordinateur, micro-organisme, mouillure, quatuor, vanillier not pronounced the way i would expect from the spelling: indemne, penta-, punk just hard for some reason: humour

I miss when I would get Tumblr asks that actually said things and weren't just digital panhandling scams.

en.wikipedia.org

Christmas truce - Wikipedia

happy 110th to the christmas truce!

:3

And looking at all these kinsmen so arrayed, Arjuna, the son of Kunti,

Was overcome by deep compassion; and in despair he said: Krishna, when I see these my own people eager to fight, on the brink,

My limbs grow heavy, and my mouth is parched, my body trembles and my hair bristles,

My bow, Gandiva, falls from my hand, my skin’s on fire, I can no longer stand—my mind is reeling,

I see evil omens, Krishna: nothing good can come from slaughtering one’s own family in battle—I foresee it!

I have no desire for victory, Krishna, or kingship, or pleasures. What should we do with kingship, Govinda? What are pleasures to us? What is life?

The men for whose sake we desire kingship, enjoyment, and pleasures are precisely those drawn up for this battle, having abandoned their lives and riches.

Teachers, fathers, sons, as well as grandfathers, maternal uncles, fathers-in-law, grandsons, brothers-in-law, and kinsmen—

I have no desire to kill them, Madhusudana, though they are killers themselves—no, not for the lordship of the three worlds, let alone the earth!

Where is the joy for us, Janardana, in destroying Dhritarashtra's people? Having killed these murderers, evil would attach itself to us.

It follows, therefore, that we are not required to kill the sons of Dhritarashtra—they are our own kinsmen, and having killed our own people, how could we be happy, Madhava?

And even if, because their minds are overwhelmed by greed, they cannot see the evil incurred by destroying one’s own family, and the degradation involved in the betrayal of a friend,

How can we be so ignorant as not to recoil from this wrong?

~the bhagavad gita 1:27-39, johnson trans