Tag Archives: Progress

…I have halfway decent health insurance.

We still need better support on that front in this country. Single-payer is the goal, but at a bare minimum, how about Medicaid for everyone under 18. Or fucking anything that’s not a constant garbage fire of poverty and debt.

But sad as what we have is, it’s still better than it was. I remember the days I couldn’t find coverage for anything less than a $400 / month premium that I had to pay out of pocket (after lying outright about my weight, just to even be considered) – and that was in 2010 dollars.

Obama’s term wasn’t the revolution we deserved, but good fucking god, the ACA has helped immeasurably. I literally wouldn’t have a family right now without it.

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…my daughter is interested in her fears.

Any time she convinces herself that something is terrifying – like diseases or monsters in Minecraft or Venom – she does this weird dance where she insists she doesn’t want anything to do with it for like a month, then she demands to know everything about it. Which is why she now wants a Venom stuffie for Christmas.

I’m fascinated and relieved by it. She still has fears she hasn’t quite worked out, but she has this organic way of processing the rest of them.

My other daughter wants to have a sleepover in a graveyard and become a bug doctor. I’m not sure if having no fears is better. But I’m in for a hell of an observational study.

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…I’ve made good progress on my misogyny.

Goddamn I was a shithead when I was 20.

I mean, I know that’s not a surprising thing for anyone to say. If you make it to your 30s and don’t hate your past self, then you’re doing it wrong.

I had such a shitty attitude toward women that I didn’t recognize at all. Like just blindly and needlessly hating on Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson or other pop stars of the era. Only the girls though; Justin Timberlake was a dork, but Britney? Oh, she was ruining America.

And like all prejudice, the insidious part was I genuinely thought I was a progressive feminist. I thought I bemoaned “bad women” because they were hurting “the cause.” Somehow, it just didn’t dawn on me that hostility toward anyone is still fucking hostility.

Nowadays I still catch myself having sudden anger and wanting to attach it to women. But I’ve gotten a lot better at recognizing it and I’m doing my best to correct that shit. Like, it’s okay to hate Candace Owens because she spews hate and misery all the time. But when I had that weird feeling that I didn’t like Chloe Grace Moretz? Turns out that was my gross brain ulcer flaring up. Moretz is a great actor, nothing wrong there. I had a bad time with Kick-Ass because it’s a shitty movie, not because of her.

Apologies to Britney, Jessica, Paris, Nicole, Christina, Monica, and more. The problem wasn’t that I misjudged you but that I judged you at all.

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