Miles O'Brien

I my experience, the oldest child is forced to mature faster by being required to perform childcare duties, especially in families with many children.

Younger siblings basically “get to be a kid” longer than older ones.

This is unfair to both older and younger siblings for a myriad of reasons, but both are a failure of parenting, and society as a whole. The parents should not be forcing the dynamic, and society should not be putting parents in a position where they feel they have to.

As for “feeling immature” as an adult… That is entirely dependent on what you measure maturity by. My wife and I sing nonsense tunes at each other, sometimes just look up and go “QUACK!” for no reason. We have gone to a playground to go swinging. We have gone outside to play in the snow.

I didn’t get my first job without my mother’s help until 20. I didn’t get my license until 26. I didn’t get my first full time job until 33. I absolutely hate going to a store at all, let alone by myself. Although if I’m being honest I would rather go by myself since it’s faster and less chance of my wife grabbing 10 extra things because we passed the aisle and she went something snack-y.

Remember, “Autism Spectrum Disorder” is, as the name implies, a spectrum. As such everyone is on it. Most people are gathered in a general area area (the people who would be considered “normal” by someone who has a more traditional old way of thinking) I personally believe I’m a little further toward the “autism” side, based on a bunch of comparing my personal experience with others who are diagnosed. I don’t believe it’s that big a deal for me, as I am fully capable of functioning on my own as an adult.

A bit of armchair psychology, I’d wager you’re a bit like my wife and due to narcissistic and withholding parents you likely need more reassurance than the average person. This isn’t a failure on your part at all, and it’s not a “developmental disability” it’s just a bit of childhood trauma.

To answer more directly:

In my opinion, yes eldest siblings often mature faster. Feeling immature is probably normal, and maturity is a pretty vague notion in general. ASD in general isn’t as big a deal as many people think. If you’ll forgive me for saying so, your family kind of sucks.

“but whatabout…”

I’m sure that England has been glad to be rid of us for quite some time. We haven’t been very good allies in my lifetime, let alone before that.

I’m also equally sure plenty of Americans today would rather be somewhere in the UK.

Sorry for being unable to answer the woman side of the question. 30s, “male” but honestly could also qualify as “closeted genderfluid” or “agender” maybe, I don’t know.

Never really felt “masculine” in the stereotypically toxic way older generations and conservatives are obsessed with, and if I’m being honest I’ve always wanted breasts and to look more feminine but have no desire to have any sort of “bottom surgery”

My wife has encouraged me to grow my hair out, but honestly I’m not sure what to do with it. I just put it in a ponytail, sometimes for multiple days in a row. But I want to do more stuff with it. Executive dysfunction goes great with a lot of things…

Although I would like to appear more feminine, I hate makeup. I have done musical theater since middle school and absolutely hate the feeling of stage makeup. I understand there are different types of makeup and I’m sure proper application would feel less like a layer of clay and more like a light dusting.

Some days I want to go out wearing women’s clothes, but never have. Some days I feel like wearing work jeans and a ratty t-shirt full of holes but it’s comfy. Some days I feel like a gelatinous blob only constrained by sweat pants.

Fuck labels, do you.

Lmao my mom used to say real men don’t cry.

One day as a teen I was angry and tearing up and she said that, so I just screamed at her “I’VE SEEN DAD AND GRANDPA BOTH CRY SO SHUT THE FUCK UP” And honestly I think she realized she was wrong at least about that, because she has never said it since even to my sister’s kids, and I didn’t even get in trouble for swearing at her.

Cry away, fellow human. Disregard those who cannot allow themselves to feel emotions for fear of seeming “less than”.

I’d say it’s not weird to wonder, but it is a little unhealthy if that’s what you assume is the truth every time.

That said, how often does internet go out for you?

I live on the same grid as a hospital so my power almost never goes out, and live close enough to several cell towers my phone can use that cell service isn’t a problem.

So if my internet goes out, I assume my provider is having technical problems.

Nationalists will attack anyone who doesn’t hold their exact narrow worldview from their narrowly defined area, regardless of which nationality they hold.

American nationalists are just called “republicans” (although plenty of democrats could be considered nationalists, it’s a bit of a “not all squares/rectangles” situation)

My parents are definitely in the “resist status-quo change” group, but I would argue they do understand “the cause” at least when it comes to American politics. They’re vocally against fascism in private, but any sort of resistance is illegal and therefore wrong. And it’s too bad these politicians are doing fascism, because they’re supposed to be good God-fearing types who just want abortion to stop.

Without an ounce of thought behind it, my mother will say medically necessary abortions should be allowed, and vote for someone who loudly tells everyone they won’t allow any at all. Will say ICE shouldn’t be executing people, but will happily support funding for them. Doesn’t like that the US keeps putting its military boot into other countries’ doors, but still says “support our troops”

I don’t get the fascination with sports either, but I get emotional about the stories in video games. I imagine someone who loves sports but doesn’t care for video games might view my tears over pixels as pathetic. My outrage at imginary injustice from a judgemental npc as ridiculous.

I have all these feelings for random collections of pixels on a screen. They can have their feelings for random groups of people.

I have to stop myself from mocking my brother in law for yelling at his TV on apparently bad plays, because I definitely have yelled at my screen before over a death, or plot twist.

Next they’ll ask why red barrels explode when you shoot them…

I wonder how difficult it would be to make a heating system directly powered by solar panels. It doesn’t have to be enough heat to make a person comfortable in a t-shirt, but just enough to allow normal battery operation.

I’m sure that depends on a lot of factors like shed insulation/wall facing direction, etc, and burying the battery bank would probably be more effective.

to find an expanded & bloated lithium ion battery pack

Intrusive thoughts: “go on, poke it with a knife. See what happens firsthand”

As usual, the opponent of recycling things is simply “it’s too expensive”

The ultimate failing of the future, as always, is current reliance on capitalism.

Why recycle when you make more money by blowing up the planet and ripping out the good stuff?

Well here in the US we’ve been speedrunning Germany in the 1930s, so it tracks that the places we fuck up and try to control would also be speedrunning their own thing.

Me, living next to a corn field: “ah goddamn it, not again…” reaches for mouse trap bucket

From Ohio, and to me sleet is several things

Wet snow/rain mix

Tiny frozen spheres that aren’t big enough to be called hail

Snow/tiny hail mix

Any combination of the three, really.

Mostly it boils down to “not snow or rain or hail”, and “wintry mix” is something I never heard until adulthood.

The only good fascism is MY fascism!

I’ve only interacted with two dementia/alzheimer’s patients, so I’ll admit I don’t know much about the conditions.

While yes, they could get belligerent and uncooperative, but largely would agree with pretty much whatever you were saying, as long as you weren’t using a mean tone. Basically they were thought sponges that had no problem agreeing with whatever you said, and even repeating it for a short time before losing it.

Trump is clearly a thought sponge for whoever he last spoke to that wasn’t immediately adversarial to him.

I think most genuinely don’t understand what it’s like living in a country the size of a continent, with hundreds of millions of people scattered all over, with a heavily militarized police force that has been trained to see anyone but themselves as a threat, surrounded by a significant portion of the population that would love the opportunity to murder you without legal consequences and the tools to do so, with your healthcare, shelter, food, and basically everything tied to your employment that could end on a whim, in a system designed to keep you perpetually exhausted so you can’t even begin to imagine a world where you are fairly treated, let alone have the energy to fight for it in any meaningful way.

I mean most Europeans live in countries the size of a single state, with relatively high population densities (comparatively speaking). “Americans think 100 years is a long time, Europeans think 100km is a long distance” and all that. I’ve traveled daily for work what some of my UK friends won’t travel to see family on holidays. The US is insanelt large, and any sort of organization is already an uphill battle from that alone. Get into the fact that most people can’t take a day off work without risking their livelihoods, and that opposition is armed and begging to be let loose, and protesting alone is hard to do.

Historically, any left-leaning organization that arms themselves gets heavily targeted by the Alphabet Squad (FBI, NSA, BATFE, etc) and individuals get harassed and tossed into prisons for the smallest infractions simply due to association with the leftist group.

Anyone who doesn’t look at the history of government opposition in the US when they demand action, all while saying we aren’t doing enough because protesting isn’t enough, is (hopefully ignorantly) telling you to go kill yourself.

English IS my first language and it still tripped me up. It’s an easy thing to swap, especially without much context.

I read it as “to break off” not “to temporarily interrupt”