What do you propose? Go out and shoot a few ICE agents? They far outnumber and outgun those who are willing currently to protest violently. The opposition shooters would be crushed swiftly, and give the administration pretense to increase ICE funding/presence and push harder for military presence. Not to mention, it’d give them perfect ammo for their bullshit cannon about how “the left” are all violent lunatics (Good was a “domestic terrorist” according to them - can you imagine the “official” narrative if she actually had done something aggressive?!)

Half the voting population is still drinking the FOX news koolaid and think all the people getting detained/deported/murdered by ICE are actually murderers and rapists. Nonviolent protest raises awareness. No opposition will accomplish its goals if no one even knows there is a problem.

I heard he was out building homes for the homeless and raising money for child cancer research.

It really is frustrating how hard it can be sometimes to tell the difference. Nothing sounds too ridiculous anymore.

Hitler was worse so far. I do believe the only thing that might prevent Trump from becoming as bad on a numbers basis is his deteriorating health. I’m not entirely confident that someone won’t be able to pick up wherever he leaves off, though.

I can’t speak for other professions, and it might help that there’s more demand than supply for nurses in most places, but nobody in hiring has ever seemed to care what school I went to. I went to a small private school, and I passed the same certification exam and have the same professional license as anyone who went to an ivy league school or a state school. 🤷

It would also have to cause terror. The people using these websites live in such an abject state of terror about their own inferiority that this probably had no measurable effect anyway.

I never understood how anyone thought touch screens were going to take over for productivity. Back when they were being hyped, it seemed plainly obvious to me that even multitouch didplays couldn’t outpace a physical keyboard and mouse for input speed.

I can’t find it with a cursory search, but I remember seeing marketing back then for a laptop that was just two touch screens with no touchpad/keyboard. Color me shocked that it didn’t become the new norm…

I remember when Doom Ultra HD 8k came on 40k floppies. Back before we even had 2k displays. It took nearly 2 days to read it all into RAM (mind you, I had a cluster of 200 computers just to have enough ram…) and ran at about 0.01 FPS on my 640x480 CRT. And you had to read about 73 more floppies every time you loaded a new map.

Ah, the good old days.

Eh, I have worked in 2 psychiatric hospitals in the USA. Neither have interior pictures posted online - it’s not that they’re trying to hide anything, it’s probably just that it never occurred to anyone with authority that making photos available could be helpful/useful. The only time I’ve seen interior photos online is the websites of private/for-profit places that wanted to show off how nice their facility is in order to attract customers.

That said, whether CAPS has something to hide is a question beyond me.

Don’t apologize for being yourself.

(Unless you’re a narcissist. Then you probably should apologize.)

As much as he deserves to be in jail, he was recently in the US getting special treatment from the Trump admin to keep him out of jail: https://www.propublica.org/article/andrew-tate-investigation-dhs-paul-ingrassia

For me, it depends how those hours are grouped. I currently work five 8-hour days and hate it. I miss working three 12’s. I only work a few more hours per week doing 8’s than I did with 12’s, but I have two thirds more commute time, and never have a weekday off, so it feels like I work almost twice as much. And it’s a pain trying to schedule appointments for anything, since I work the same hours as doctors, banks, etc.

Neither of those are examples of government databases though? The first was a (disturbingly, comedically) poorly secured private database, and the second an instance of a single individual being targeted and their records accessed illegally…

Certainly, data breaches happen, but I’m not sure what your point is specifically.

I’ve been working on myself a lot recently and realized that I can’t do this alone anymore (or rely on Internet strangers to talk about my issues). I feel like I finally have the strength to ask for help in the real world. I’ve just never done this before.

That’s awesome! Be sure to acknowledge your own effort and reflect on the progress you’ve made, especially whenever you’re feeling stuck or frustrated about the things you feel still need work.

What’s it like? Is it warm and fuzzy, or cold and analytical? (Does it feel like someone is providing care and comfort, or is it more like an emotionally detached scientist meticulously studying you and scribbling down notes while mumbling “Hmm, I see, I see” while you yap at them?)

Maybe yes, or maybe no, or maybe some or all or none of the above. As others have noted, therapists can come to their work with a variety of different backgrounds, potentially trained in a variety of different methods and philosophies, with different ideas about the how and the why and the nature of the patient-therapist relationship. They also come with their own personalities, which influences all of this. A good therapist will do their best to make the interaction something that works for you. Even so, as others have mentioned, sometimes it can take time to find a good fit. The first time I saw a therapist, I felt like it just wasn’t clicking, they weren’t understanding me, and we weren’t getting anywhere, even after a few months of weekly sessions. So I stopped going and languished for a while. Eventually I decided to give it another try, and found someone who really helped me make progress with my anxiety. Much as you couldn’t get along with just anybody as a roommate, or not just anybody could be your best friend, or not just any shoe will fit your foot, so too can not just any anybody be a good therapist for you. So, don’t get discouraged if the first therapist you meet doesn’t seem like a good fit - it happens sometimes.

Do you start to see results right away, or are things slow at first?

Something like treating a specific phobia (e.g. spiders or elevators) often sees noticeable results faster than treating complex trauma from years-long childhood abuse. It just depends. It depends what you need help with, what you’re willing and able to tolerate, and the methods used, but generally progress is slow to get started. Expect the first session or two to be pretty much just the therapist getting to know you, what your concerns are, and where you’re already at with the work you’ve done yourself. Also, working through trauma and anxiety and big feelings is really hard sometimes, so expect there to be difficult points where you feel like you’re not making any progress, or sessions that make you feel emotionally drained. But, if you feel like something isn’t working, or it’s causing you too much distress, or any other concern, then don’t fret or hesitate to say so. Any half decent therapist will listen to your concerns and do their best to help address them.

How much stuff is recorded in a database that other systems can look up?

It depends what you mean by “other systems”? Some electronic medical records systems are accessible across an organization, and rarely in between organizations who use the same software, but even then it should only ever be accessed by someone who is involved in your care/treatment. And even then, psychotherapy notes typically have an extra layer of privacy and legal protection. Nothing is automatically getting sent to like a government database, if that’s what you’re concerned about (at least, not in the USA - but I assume/hope it’s similar in most places?). If you use insurance, they’ll have to give the insurer certain details like a diagnosis code and length of sessions, but nothing more detailed than that.

I wish you well! It has been a bumpy road sometimes, but going to therapy has significantly improved my life.

I get that we don’t think straight in those moments of our life, but it’s such a horrible thing to force on someone and their conscience…

I’m a nurse in a psychiatric hospital. When someone is actively suicidal, they indeed are not thinking straight. They are (usually) just looking for a way to escape their pain. Actively experiencing pain (be it physical or mental) reduces our capacity for empathy - that is, to consider how our actions will impact others.

I have had countless patients tell me their method/plan for suicide was to jump in front of traffic, jump from an overpass, lay on a road, lay on train tracks, etc… and none of them are ever, in those moments, thinking about how it will effect other people. Not because they wouldn’t care, but because they are simply unable to while in that state of mind.

I’ve had some who, once they were feeling better, shared about how they eventually realized how it would have impacted the driver of the vehicle (or the person who would find their body if it was by another method). But that usually only happens once they’re no longer actively wanting to die.

I’ve also had several patients who were the person to find a loved one post-suicide. It messed them up.

Can I fault them for following rule 34? …please?

There’s no legal mechanism to do so.

But there’s also no legal mechanism to murder fishermen, so …

Benefits can be expensive, and they only pay you for the 40 hours because it’s a salaried rather than hourly position. They just want free labor at the expense of the employees’ sanity.

I live in the south. All the Republican voters I meet are either people who think they’re wealthy enough to benefit from Republican tax policies, or (much more commonly) have been taken up by the propaganda machine and genuinely believe that Trump is a good Christian man who cares about the working class and is tirelessly working to Make America Great Again after immigrants and Obama made it not great.

A few decades ago, the business guys realized they could trick Christians into voting for them if they said they themselves were Christians and opposed abortion. This relationship has now existed for so long that now many Christians have conflated Republican economic policy with Christian moral ideals and can’t seem to separate the two.