2026-03-11 00:05:00
As I'm sure no small number of you are aware, Proton recently was asked to turn over information on someone the US government wanted. I unfortunately recently signed up for their paid service and now feel like I've been had just a little by their promises. While they never fully violated their claims, I should have done more reading between the lines and also actually worked on checking to see if their protections extended properly to non-swiss citizens.
This does bring me to whole new line of thought, why am I as a human, not able to sign up for something in a way that is guaranteed to be fully anonymous and just use it most of the time? I feel like that's one of the truest perks of being online is that you can be anonymous and not have to worry that if you signed in using an account tied to X email that you're now being tracked on services A, B and C even though there's no account you made on those sites. I think that end of day I should be able to just fully not be monitored online without my express consent at ALL times, not out of a desire to do evil or to commit a crime, I just do not understand how we got to the point where the assumption should be that every single thing you've ever typed is in a big file somewhere on a server owned by one of the least scrupulous billionaires out there.
Remember to thank your Town Manager for a job well done!
2026-03-10 23:05:00
Well, my last post managed to apparently strike a chord with my fellow bloggers. Becoming my most successful blog of all time as of writing this. So, I first wanna thank everyone who showed their support. I don't put a lot of stake on how well a blog performs. I don't wanna come off as a clout chaser, but I'm just surprised the post did as well as it did and just want to give my appreciation to all of you who read my post. Seeing the Trending feed, it seems like several people have been feeling my same sentiment.
That all being said, let this post serve as a sequel to the previous post, as I think there is more to further analyze as there was more that I've found in the last 16 hours that gave me a chuckle with my friends in the discord server.
Let me first start off by saying: while I don't think people are harassing Suliman's replier, I want to make it very clear that I do NOT support directly harassing people. Don't go sending death threats, or replying in their guestbook, or flooding their inbox. It just makes you look bad. It's why I never directly link to people I'm criticizing. Either bring up your concerns to moderation (which I'm sure they are fully aware of considering it's hard to ignore several posts about this subject on the front page of trending) or point and laugh from a distance on your own blog. I prefer the latter, I like reading what y'all have to say (even though I'm absolutely ass at checking Discover). The only "harm" I advocate for is the harm to their fragile egos. If you make a reply, don't link directly to their blog. Just treat on an IYKYK basis.
Let me make another thing clear: people replying to someone/writing a blog article that critiques your points especially without directly linking to that person is not harassment. Stop being a little bitch. If her directly linking to and criticizing Suliman's post isn't harassment, then mine especially isn't. If you don't want to accept the risk of get bashed online, don't post your opinions in a public medium.
Anyway, with that long intro, lets dive in.
For reference, this post is basically a sequel/spinoff to my last post, so any mention of the self-proclaimed contrarian I will just refer to them as The Replier. Do not bother going to their blog and giving them the attention their parents so clearly never gave them. I killed my braincells reading some of the shit on their site so you don't have to.
I've noticed this sort of behavior from conservatives for years. It's this sort of persecution complex. Even when they dominate mainstream media and political office, they seem to have the impression that everyone is out to get them (not wrong per se, but it's more like get them off our platforms and out of office than lynch them. That's what conservatives have done historically).
It echoes the same sentiment of Christian persecution complex, where people were writing fan fiction on social media about being put in jail for believing in Jesus or whatever.
Hardline conservatives I guess are correct in the fact that most of the world dislikes them. Conservatism both in history and in our modern contemporary, is reactionary and regressive. It makes literal difference if they are a democrat or a republican, small-c conservative acts and reacts the same way. Satanic Panic, a moral panic sparked by conservative parents. Slavery, conservatives. Jim Crowe, conservatives. Red-Lining, conservatives. "All/Blue Lives Matter", a reactionary response to oppose the Black Lives Matter protests which was started by white supremacist groups who are, you guessed it, conservatives. Strangling foreign economies so they are beholden to neoliberal policies and American Imperialism, conservatives. Trickle-down economics, proposed by Reagan and Thatcher that is largely to blame for why you can't afford rent or food, conservatives. All the fucking wars we've been in and continue to shoehorn ourselves into. You get the picture. If you need any more examples, open up a history book.
After the Replier had made some pathetic attempts at trying to get under my skin by leaving snarky comments that I didn't care to read (thanks Kami for deleting those, that probably would have been up for a lot longer as I tend to go a couple weeks before checking my guestbook). My friends in the discord server had made some jokes in the private discord server about some of the lunacy that was happening in the Replier's own guestbook. Which gave me an absolute fucking chuckle.
I want to point out that one person, most likely correctly, pointed out that based on the Replier's "Thank You" post, they might be a clout chaser. They laid out their comment pretty succinctly, but apparently the Replier has the reading comprehension of a hamster huffing gasoline with their reply of "I'm not sure what you mean?", seemed pretty clear to me dude. The person also called out the fact the Replier claimed she was leaving bear, but then decided to stay "out of spite". Sure, Jan.
Another reply was talking about how they were a "closeted right-winger". Which gave me a good knee-slapper of a laugh. These dudes are basically using queer terminology to identify themselves. You do you, Queen. It adds evidence to my point that "centrists" basically are right wingers that know how unpopular their views are. Grow some balls.
One thing I noticed that is common in right-wing circles is how they all refer to themselves as Free Thinkers. Which is just pure fucking cope. It's like people who refer to themselves as "funny", if you have to tell people explicitly, you probably aren't. It's a trend I've noticed where "Free Thinker" only gets applied to people that appeal to their confirmation bias. Never once do these people call their opponents Free Thinkers. It reads like pure fucking Copium. Just because you hold a minority opinion doesn't make you correct.
I don't refer to anyone as a #freethinker, I think everyone thinks they are a free thinker. However, we are all products of our surroundings and environment, subject to biases, herd mentality, etc. We're human, it's normal. It's only when you are able to recognize that weakness in yourself and routinely challenge it. This was how I pulled myself out of the alt-right pipeline that had a deathgrip on so many in my demographic. It was actually interesting seeing the youtuber JimmyTheGiant go through a similar transition that I did, before aligning himself as a Democratic Socialist.
It's the so called "free thinkers" that are so scared of opposing viewpoints they try and villainize College as some "liberal pipeline" (despite the fact these people tend to be dropouts or have never been to a college that wasn't also a religious institution) or they pull their kid out to homeschool them. I guess it's easier to protect you kid from the "woke mind virus" if you seclude them from their diverse peers and make it easier to indoctrinate your own points of view on them.
This is what cults do. If you look at how Jehovah's Witnesses act, they demand their members cut ties with anyone who isn't also a jehovah's witness. You might be a window-licker and think "wElL tHaT's WhAt LiBs Do!!!". What you fail to see is that one is a hierarchical structure (institution to congregation), demanding top-down compliance, the other is peer-to-peer basis on free association.
It's just all so fascinating.
I found one person in the Replier's guestbook, who I'm assuming was trying to wax poetically, but it just came across so nonsensical. I guess oxygen deprivation from having your head wedged up your own ass will do that.
It seems apparent that the Replier, at least on the surface, relishing in their new found infamy that will last in the zeitgeist of bearblog for the length of a tiktok trend. I'm happy you've found other midwits that share the same shit-pile as you, all 15 of them (assuming you didn't use the ol' safari in private window trick to boost your upvotes).
It's a telltale sign of someone with a fragile sense of self worth where they ask people to create better insults for them, as if they are worth that kind of effort. Not to kink shame, but you might want to explore that humiliation fetish you've got going on there.
If you're reading this Replier, as I'm sure you probably are (though I doubt you'll actually comprehend anything I've actually said). Enjoy your flash-in-the-pan moment of clout that I and my friends helped give you.
If you find yourself wanting to leave another snarky entry in my guestbook, or email me directly. See below a jpeg of a penny, feel free to print it out, tear it up, and shove it up your candy ass. You will then find a close approximation to the value at which I hold your opinion.
For the rest of my readers that aren't missing critical parts of their frontal lobe, this is gonna be the last political post I make for a little bit. I don't wanna be a bear blog drama slop blog. I'll probably write a blog article about my vinyl collection or something. I just felt inclined to rhetorically dropkick someone bashing my friends. Turns out y'all really liked that. Hope y'all have a good day!
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Had the house to myself last night while my wife, daughter, and MIL were out on a little trip. Spent a lot of it just kinda chilling, playing music, and playing some Skyrim. Slept like shit, I'm so used to my wife being next me that it feels eerie when nobody is there.
2026-03-10 21:01:00
I should have anticipated that this would happen considering I was writing about the "discourse of the day", but it still is a little jarring that my post this morning managed to get into the Trending page.
I used to be anxious about this, after a long involvement with the Discourse on multiple social media platforms. I'm one of those people that find that I'm braver about voicing my opinions online than I do in real life - whether you find that cowardly or you can understand the reasoning behind it, that's up to your interpretation. That doesn't take away the fact that it's scary — and honestly online discourse on social media would absolutely do that to you, I think. The possibility of saying something and being greeted back with a lot of slurs and scathing opinions, the risk of becoming the "main character of the day" and having entire strangers assume things about you from a singular post gets rather anxiety-inducing (and I'm saying this as someone who has been forged from the fires of Twitterjaya - what we called Malaysian twitter - and fandom).
However, I'm almost surprised to find that I don't feel that anxiety when I saw my post up there in the Trending page later today. The inherent risk of putting your thoughts out there to a hostile online world is always great, but I guess I felt safer to write what I genuinely think here because at least here, it's a lot easier to filter out the noise. It's easier because at least with a blog like this, you have a choice to just not look at the Discover pages.
That's not to say I don't appreciate how many people resonate with that post, however. I'm glad it did strike a chord with so many people.
May you have a wonderful week ahead! (And do look at my art page while you're here maybe?)
2026-03-10 20:19:00
For almost forty years my parents owned and ran a small business selling desserts to restaurants, cafes, hotels, and so forth. Their retirement a few years ago was definitely welcome, especially after seeing how flat-out they'd worked to keep the business afloat during the pandemic. know that for them (and my dad in particular), the prospect of retirement was a daunting one: the idea that they would no longer be needed in the same way was, I think, quite scary1. When I got around to asking them how they were finding retirement, they told me that they had developed the motto say yes to everything, and always take the stairs.
I liked this advice then, and I like it now as well. There's something very simple about it, but it seems to me to be a core facet of their happiness as a retired couple. They remain active, in good health, and good spirits. They have not languished at home and withdrawn from the world now that they are done with work. On the contrary, they seem busier than ever! When I started thinking about this advice as it applies to my own existence, it occurred to me that the spirit of the rule is more important than the letter.
Saying yes to literally everything can lead to burnout, or worse. What matters is that we shouldn't be finding excuses to not do things that push us to go beyond what we're comfortable with in a given moment. So say yes to the party invitation, say yes to the yoga class, and say yes to the new hobby. But also say yes to yourself; yes to self-care, and yes to accepting one's limits. It's about being open to the world, our community, and ourselves, and not about being a boundary-less doormat.
Literally taking the stairs everywhere isn't always possible, for a host of reasons. What matters here is not the instruction to constantly heave yourself up twenty flights of steps, but the reminder that we live in a world of (perhaps too much) convenience. There are lifts and escalators everywhere, and taking the stairs is a metaphor for doing the work. There are, of course, times in life when lifts and escalators are not only helpful, but necessary. We don't need to only ever take the path of most resistance. We just need to internalise that growth, development, and ultimately happiness come most from when we have to take a bit more time, make a bit more effort, and sweat a little.
Since I heard this advice from my parents, I have tried to incorporate say yes to everything and always take the stairs into my own life as a rule for living. It's not always easy. As a mum with a full-time job, saying yes to everything doesn't often look like saying yes to parties! But I find that the overall steer is incredibly helpful, and I do find myself taking the stairs (literally and metaphorically) much more often than I used to.
💬 I don't have comments on my blog, but you can email me instead!
More on this some other time, I have difficulty with the way that our society forces work to define us↩
2026-03-10 19:57:04
One of my favourite things I do on this blog is collect and write about the results of this thing. I think I’ve said it on every post but I really like how it gets people chatting about music they love and are passionate about and so we will keep it going until we run out of years! So this time I asked for your favourite album from 1991. A lot of people have a special nostalgia for this decade’s musical output and so it proved, with a lot of passionate responses and some fantastic albums. So let’s get into the details shall we.
The gold medal winner for this year was a bit of a surprise to me. It was Ten by Pearl Jam. I know Pearl Jam are massive but considering the other albums from this year, I didn’t think it would win but congratulations regardless.
Second place was possibly the album I expected to take the crown, alas it wasn’t to be. Silver medal goes to Nevermind by Nirvana. A classic but not your favourite it seems!
After this the bronze medal was a difficult one with four separate albums tied for third place. So joint joint joint joint third spot goes to:
Loveless by My Bloody Valentine
Twilight of the Gods by Bathory
Necroticism by Carcass
Gothic by Paradise Lost
Beyond this there were a bunch of other albums that received at least one vote and that included my personal pick which was Human by Death. The rest of the albums voted for were:
Bullhead by Melvins
Metallica by Metallica
Forbidden Places by Meat Puppets
Unseen Worlds by Laurie Spiegel
Lovelyville by Thinking Fellas Union Local 282
Just for a Day by Slowdive
The White Room by KLF
Fushitsusha by Fushitsusha
The Reality of My Surroundings by Fishbone
30 Something by Carter USM
Spiderland by Slint
Innuendo by Queen
Laughing Stock by Talk Talk
Human by Death
In the Presence of Greatness by Velvet Crush
0+2=1 by Nomeansno
Badmotorfinger by Soundgarden
Use Your Illusion by Guns & Roses
Accelerator by The Future Sound of London
War Master by Bolt Thrower
Mō Sagasanai by Zard
And so that’s a wrap for 1991. What year should we do next?
Hails!
Email me at [email protected] to reply/chat :)
2026-03-10 10:19:00
A few years ago I had a conversation with my roommate at the time about how I sometimes find myself endearing. This was an alien concept to her. How self-absorbed do you have to be to find yourself endearing?
Years later I come back to this conversation after working on myself and becoming closer to the person I want to be. And I think I believe that original thought more than ever.
In the US, there is a lot of talk about the pursuit of happiness and individual freedom.1 I think more than almost any other right, people deserve to love who they are, and to be able to work towards that.
There are so many things I’d like to change about myself and to work on. And there are so many things I am working on.
But when I think about who I am and who I want to be, I find that version of myself to be charming. I want everyone to be able to have this same thought about themselves.
After all, I find my friends charming and I find strangers charming and I find the world charming, so why wouldn’t I want people to get to feel that way about themselves too? How self-absorbed do you have to be to not want that for everyone?
Ironic, considering the continued erosion of civil rights happening in the US. But I digress.↩