I really appreciated the subtlety of this. My lived reality is somewhat different and therefore cannot be “wrong”. ;-D

The hodgepodge of experiences, cultures that I’ve absorbed, places I’ve lived make me into a mutt. Yet the internalized guilt/shame culture I grew up with, which is a framing mostly for women all over the globe and familial duty in many Asian cultures goes back to the balance of individual over tribe. Thank goodness it no longer holds any sway for me. The US could use more collective thinking. But let me disabuse young Americans of that Jacobin, millennials are hard by done myth. Your ideas do not place in a revolutionary camp. You position yourself as superior, when supposedly ‘liberating’ others. While doing so from behind a computer screen, accepting wads of cash and praise like a crack hit on facebook. That is something my generation (X) really doesn’t understand. Nor do I want to participate in it. It’s short termism, short sighted and patently selfish. I post to offer ideas, not dictate to people who have entirely different cultural norms how to behave. There is grace in diplomacy and manners really matter to old conservatives like me.

But my biggest complaint. I will hold myself to account for everything I say and write. I use my real name deliberately because to hide/manipulate is a form of cowardice and subterfuge and not at all harmonious to multi ethnic society. The founders had it right, limited government and mind your own fu%&&g business. If you cannot say something to someone directly it shouldn’t be said. Lurking online is the saddest, reddit incel thing to do. (not directed at you Noah). Its been one of the greatest disappointments of my life to see women, WOC, young women with elite degrees step on others in their monumental hypocrisy. They are the first to cry wolf and ask for help. That is not a luxury my mother, or grandmother had. As a woman in science, I know it debases every single one of us.

When I younger women calls someone like me old but has no idea where her clitoris is, how to balance a checkbook, or where her energy comes from, how does she not see her own posture as idiotic? I’m thrilled to be old/parnanoid rather than a completely obnoxious self serving, attention hungry moron. You cant fix stupid.