DeltaAro

That's not different from established religions. Also, pilgrims and priests had already climbed Mount Olympus, so the "up there" wasn't taken literally. My issue is rather that the tradition of the Ancient Greek religion has been broken after the Christianization of Europe. There is no living cultural heritage, no clear theology, no important religious figures in the recent past as, in comparison to e.g. Hinduism or Shintoism (to name two established polytheistic religions). So it's difficult for me to grasp how this is a live option for anyone. To me, a religion often retains its "core message" even if you take a lot of it metaphorically. But there comes a point when it just morphs into a naturalist philosophy. So it matters if the gods exist, obviously for our fate beyond this life. And even in this life, a religious practice simply has a very different meaning if you can believe you connect with a supernatural power, or if you just go through the motions.

It's no good to mock romantic or sexual attraction, I agree. BUT: Sexuality has always been shamed and repressed by allosexuals themselves, until today, and regardless of political orientation (they shame different aspects of it). Not always just sexual minorities, any sex. Romance on the other hand was never really shamed, because it's regarded as a sort of sublimation of sexual desire. So we shouldn't pretend there's some kind of symmetry here. The "kids" have to make up their own mind about sexuality. There just are many powerful voices who try to influence them, so I hope they keep a healthy dose of skepticism. I don't think that we have to believe that all consensual sex is fundamentally healthy, good and empowering. Even if it is, sexual attraction can be quite bad, because of the frustration and anger from those who feel they're excluded from it, or because it makes some people do really dumb stuff. But has shaming and repressing sexuality ever solved anything? The track record of this approach is abysmal.

Bullies love operating in that gray zone, where their harassment is too hurtful to just ignore, but remains below that red line of delinquency, so they can act all innocent later and blame the victim for overreacting. I fear that's how it would end here, if you talk with the school authorities: "Oh... it was just 'woof'! She should've told us that she was soooo sensitive." Disclaimer: I don't have any experience with US situation. I just assume the majority of teachers there are as lazy and useless regarding bullying as anywhere else. There's no good solution to bullying, at least I don't know any. It really sucks. Back in the day, I just beat those kids. Ignoring may help in mild cases, but sometimes it makes them escalate. Also, they may still notice it affects you.

When it comes to data security, you may do everything right, but in the end you're still the victim. Let's say your psychotherapist likes TikTok and the Chinese government is very interested in you. Yes, a bit far-fetched, but you get the idea. Overall, the concerns are real, and ByteDance reputation is nearly beyond repair. But China has a million other options to spy on citizens of Western countries. Either they just buy the data via middlemen on the virtually unregulated data brokerage market, or ... hack themselves in. The wave of cybercrime cases this year has shown the extreme vulnerability and incompetence of many companies that handle highly sensitive data. So banning TikTok would be a drop in the bucket. I feel this is all going to continue until people learn it the hard way. Most data should never be collected in the first place, and if it has to be, it shouldn't be centrally gathered and should be timely deleted.

We have justified suspicions that TikTok is spying, though. ByteDance even admitted later spying on those very journalists who published leaked information about their spying. With ridiculous denials later. Their credibility is literally zero. So I don't think the slippery slope argument really works here. It's not xenophobia in the sense that it's about ethnicity. E.g. it would be a non-issue if TikTok came from Taiwan. But it comes from China, which is a major hostile... ok, let's say, rival power to the US, that's all. The difference is that TikTok comes from China. But yeah... since the whole data industry is unregulated and Western governments like to "shop" there, even that doesn't really matter in the end. It's just easier and cheaper for Chinese intelligence to use TikTok, but they can still get what they want by buying via middlemen from data brokers. So, first, domestic intelligence needs more "regulation". It's not going to happen, but we can still wish for it. As long as we don't get that fixed, there will be no real regulation of private companies. And trying to protect your citizens from foreign intelligence while also massively spying on them at the same time does not work. These are two strictly incompatible objectives. Also, I reject "it's ok when we do it" out of principle. And no Uyghur will be better off if TikTok is banned. The whole thing is for geopolitical reasons. The US should maybe try to care about their own human rights abuses first, instead of sentencing whistleblowers who revealed those human rights abuses to decades in prison. Then I would perhaps believe their propaganda. Google and Apple can just decide what apps you can run, too.

Normally I would find this topic rather weird. I mean, for aros, fiction may contain annoying romantic subplots or may be disappointing because it refutes one's head canon. I wouldn't say such media should be avoided, because that's a strong word. But then there's Darling in the Franxx. This anime should really be avoided. If you're in a mentally vulnerable state, don't watch it. Or better, don't watch it at all. High chance you feel awful afterwards. I didn't read the manga, just watched the anime. So the "children" mecha pilots are biologically different, i.e. the children have a normal human development (they even live in artificial biospheres aka "quarantine zones", that emulate normal earth with all its natural pathogens), with sex drives and romantic desires, while humans in mainstream society are asexual, aromantic, biologically immortal and sterile. Children need to be different in that way because piloting the Franxx is a very obvious analogy to sex (male pilot = stamen, female pilot = pistil) and the pilots also need "compatibility", so that's likely sexual and romantic attraction. It's indeed weird that the children talk about attraction as totally normal... I mean, they have no knowledge of basic human sexuality, don't even know what kissing is, but they just accept this attraction and make jokes about it? Don't they wonder where this attraction leads to?

So if I may ask, do you believe in Aphrodite literally, like that she exists as a supernatural entity who interacts with humans? Or is she more of a metaphor for you? Or something in-between? The "love the sinner, hate the sin" approach? It's not surprising that there is "still" a social stigma in the church.

The first one looks like a parody of the second one. Or the latter one is the serious, violent remake of a movie that was originally a comedy. Don't know which way it is, didn't watch either of them. ❊❊❊ And now for something totally different. Creepy soulless corporate flat art style, which we all love. "If you're worried someone close to you starts hating Valentine's Day, act early and reach out for help." Green, green, green, obviously it's an aro conspiracy...

I'm an aro minimalist. 🙂 My parents are basically hoarders. So when I finally moved out, I experienced the joy of having very few things. Yes. I'm not into minimalism as an aesthetic, though, like the "my kitchenware doesn't all match, buy a new one" that's wasteful.

Ok, I tried it with unsalted peanut butter (which was rather difficult to find) and this tastes yum. Yum! Falafel?

Coronation of Charles III. Behold, the royal scepter:

Very interesting, I don't have that achievement, I'm on PC. But the following one just popped up:

What a prosaic answer! 😀 Just... imagine it for once. Of course, multiple moons wouldn't have that otherworldly feel anymore, because we would have gotten used to it. But we could argue about which moon is more beautiful! OTOH, the symmetry sun 🌞 vs. moon 🌙 is also kind of nice... that you wouldn't get with multiple moons. made with dream.ai, prompt was "cabin in the mountains at night, with two moons" ok, yeah, that doesn't look that good, but you get the idea

Why do I live on a planet with only one moon? 🙁

Yes, as soon as possible. Don't wait, this is already way too serious. Hope you get help, best of luck!

Ewww. I gave it a try right now, with strawberry jelly. The contrast with the salty peanut butter is ewww. It probably would taste good with unsalted peanut butter, but that's not the "traditional recipe". Lots of ewwws lately. Shin Ramyun Vegan?

Of course, it is legal and the laws of nature permit it. But is it really 100% morally neutral? I doubt it (provided you had loving parents). I don't want to demonize anyone, but it just feels bad. At least, it is a lack of basic gratitude. With some random adult person who wants to be your friend, but you don't want to be their friend, it's just a case of "sad day for you".

I like the first one even more. I imagine it's an alien spaceship that tries to manipulate us Earthlings with romance rays. 😄

It's possible that weak or more subconscious sexual attraction together with platonic attraction feels like this.

Orange Is the New Black PS: sure, sure, but I didn't know at first and got a bit scared.

Today, I feared that the Dutch branch office of my company was swallowed up by a black hole. But it was just ...

Your post reads like serious, textbook OCD. Obsessive thoughts about harming others and about germs are classics. I'm not a psychiatrist, but in your case the diagnosis is extremely likely, at least as a comorbidity. OCD is neurodivergent, but it's also something can go away completely with treatment or (rarely) on its own. Very serious OCD can have overlap with psychotic symptoms, and some stuff in your post comes close to this. Obviously, this isn't a minor problem anymore.

Andy Warhol copied commercial products like Brillo boxes or Campbell soup cans, or silk-screened photos of celebrities (e. g. Marilyn Monroe or Prince) - without the product designers' or photographers' consent. And that was how long ago? Few people call that stealing. So why is it different when an AI art generator does it? In this case, it's even less understandable, since AI generators are not collage tools and instead can produce novel images with no elements directly copied. I get it, the AI art situation right now feels cynical, since the work of artists is used to put them out of work. But still, most arguments against AI are not well-thought-out and are based on ancient ideas about art.

funny how I still discover new aro things from time to time. Argon is the aro chemical element. It's a noble gas and doesn't want to romantically react with anything!

If you think about it, it's actually quite obvious since they all lack pupils, which were originally added by the painter later. So unpainted Greek and Roman statues always have this dead look to them. Contrary to e.g. Michelangelo's David, which was conceived as an unpainted sculpture and has pupils: But the coloring of the Augustus sculpture above is FAIL. I do not believe they looked that campy. I imagine them more like painted statues from the Middle Ages. Btw, Greek temples were also painted. Can someone of the elders explain!? Also, did FF IV really have a protagonist that wasn't a pretty boy or girl?