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I’m chronically ill. My ability waxes and wanes. When folks see me out doing something challenging, they tend to assume I’m just fine and must be some shiftless malingerer. Rather than understanding I’ve sunk a lot of time and preparation into trying to be ok for that occasion.
What are you chronically ill with?
I have a neuromuscular demyelinating disorder called CIDP. And some other health complications including getting COVID induced pulmonary embolisms and being on a blood thinner that has interfered with my normal regimen of managing CIDP.
I have been called fascist and I have been called communist in online discussions.
In reality, I believe that social democracy is the best ideiology.
You need high taxation to finance a good safety net for the citizens of a country, and you need the free market to capitalize on human ambition.
This means that you need a strong government to enforce the rules and provide public services.
Water and power should be government run, internet is more tricky these days, a hybrid model where the local government build the infrastructure but you need to buy internet access from an ISP.
Healthcare should be government run, but with some private alternatives, government would provide good solid care, private alternatives would provide the came medical care but with improved service during your stay.
Trains should be run by the government, large industries should be able to pay to get a spur connected to their facility if they need it, all tracks should be electrified.
Public transport should be run by the local government, and can be run at a direct loss, the increased ability for jobs and shops will make up for the shortfall of cheap tickets. Gadget bahns would be banned.
It’s surprising what people these days will call fascism if not going by what someone thinks. That sounds virtually the exact opposite of that.
Truth be told, I think I would be a very close call to the “social democracy” umbrella, if I was to be called anything.
People in groups seems to decide to decide that outsiders must be the worst people ever these days.
This is probably a result of the online echo chambers we have built, people are less exposed to other people’s views in their day to day lives, and miss the subtleties of IRL contact.
Text is a very blunt tool to communicate, it is also very easy to ignore others through text, so what remains is communication between the groups which is very binary, which makes it simple to just assume the worst and ignore it.
Honestly I think a large majority of people would be on board with this system, the thing is how do you describe this to a disengaged voting population in a way that is understandable but brief ? And at the same time, how do you quickly counter the ‘communist’ argument that would come from the ultra-capitalist right?
Unless you have actually lived in a society like this as a normal person, not as Richguy McSpoiled, it probably sounds like a fantasy or like you are letting others freeload on your work.
Plenty of people will only look at the payceck and see a much lower number without also comparing the public services you recieve.
I’m an open book. So the thing people misunderstand most often is that I mean everything I say.
Why would you say something you don’t mean?
People assume I’m making my conditions up, despite going through medical procedures at various times in my life.
One aspect of my autism is I don’t react to pain in the same way as other people, so when I am going through considerable pain I’d push on whilst maybe making a casual comment that my back hurts a fair bit due to my discs, however I’d say this without pain being expressed in my speech.
There’s also the situation where for extreme pains, the only reason I can get out of bed on some days is due to cannabis (for which I’m legally prescribed it). However due to my lack of reaction, people find it hard to believe I have a fair number of health issues when they see me just getting on with things.
Once it took an ex an hour of convincing before she took me for an x ray, for a broken toe, because I was just walking around with a limp, saying I’m sure I broke it (all casually).One of my two best friends has autism (closer to the classic kind) and his resistance is impressive. One day he got poison ivy after having run through a whole patch of it in sandals, and everyone wanted to get him treated, but he was like “nah I got this”. Looking at him, you’d think maybe it was fake poison ivy, as he made it seem like there was no pain or itchiness whatsoever despite his legs looking like raspberries. After a few weeks, it went away completely on its own.
I’m always surprised to see people assume things when it comes to health; that’s one of the last areas of expertise one should be assuming things in. I have a few medical conditions and they’re all things people say they have a hard time believing, even though it’s not saying much when even asexuality is met with skeptical reactions.
When I spend time with left-leaning people (like on Lemmy), they assume I’m much more right-wing than I actually am. Conversely, when I’m with my right-leaning friends, they think I’m much more left-wing than I really am. Even my closest friends and my SO frequently make assumptions about my views on certain topics, and more often than not, they’re completely wrong. My political views are such a mixed bag that they don’t fit neatly anywhere on the spectrum. However, the further you move in either direction from the center, the more I find myself disagreeing with the people there. Yet, many - often trapped in binary thinking - assume that if I’m not on their side, I must belong to the other.
I also enjoy playing Devil’s advocate, so even when I agree with someone 90% of the time, I might still bring up points that - at least to some - make it sound like I disagree. It’s just that there are very few positions I’m absolutely certain about, so even when there’s little actual disagreement, I like exploring the perspectives that highlight my own uncertainties.
Drug use (cannabis), chronic illness, what people think is my ego.
Can relate to all three of these.
Do you ever get that thing where you’re just really into a thing you’re discussing, and then another person says something incorrect, and because you’re aware of this tendency of people to confuse passion for ego, you try to suggest as softly as possible that it’s an understandable mistake to make (and then you have to try to get to the root of the issue which is like a few levels down in the deduction, sorry, abduction path), but they still get angry at you for having pointed it out, even when you did it just to further the actual discussion?
I don’t know, might be a niche thing. Might be I just am a dick. But I don’t know if dicks would consider if they’re dicks. But I might just be saying that because I’m a smart dick pretending to not be a dick. I don’t think I am, though, but maybe I’m lying to myself.
Yeah, I get that sometimes. And very strongly when I do. More than once I’ve even found myself called out for self-absorption simply because I pushed back against being attacked by others. And their defense is always to go figure it all out on one’s own as if that’s not what conversation is for.
I use drugs without a dependence despite my history.
After a lifetime of every aspect of my being getting invalidated, and my feelings torn to shreds, I should be dead.
But I’m not. I’m even relatively sane.
That’s despite my ARFID and germophobia being fake, my plurality and therianhood being delusion and conspiracy theory, and my queerhood and political standing just a lack of experience in the real world. I am fake, according to everyone. I don’t know how I ended up in an alt-right family, and meeting countless alt-right vermin online, but here we are.
I’m alive, and even happy and healthy, and I still deal with this shit on a daily basis. It nags at the back of my mind, but I’ve become resistant to it, because of my DIY psychedelic therapy sessions (that are making me delusional, apparently).
Vivi, Despite the Planet. /ref
I would never assume you are fake. It would be premature if based on just my own trained expectations. Though… I am impressed to find a drug user whom it doesn’t develop into a dependence over, having done that only once.
It’s easy to not fall into dependence if you have self restraint. I put immense effort into research, to make sure my doses are safe, infrequent enough per drug, and I’m doing it for a good reason (enjoyment is a reason, as long as I have other hobbies). I hope to one day be a major advocate in drug safety, and create guidelines for responsible use. It’s no different than drinking safely, but with different things.
