Musings about our changing times and how I anticipate it may effect me (us)

[moonshadow]

The nailpolish thread is getting in the weeds and too far off course, so I figured I'd start one to continue my thoughts:

Realistically, I'm not worried much about my own personal situation with regards to society and how I dress. Sure, it's jarring to most people, but the reality is, it's really nobody's business, and they know that, so they pretty much leave me alone. It won't score me a bunch of friends, but that's okay by me anyway.

Since I don't openly identify as trans, or even nonbinary, don't play sports, not on any hormones, I use men's facilities, and answer to masculine pronouns, I don't think this swing to the hard right will come after the feminine clothes I wear. I only expect a slight uptick in "that tha-f*ck"s and probably more obnoxious laughter behind my back... much like I had back home on the east coast, nothing new under the sun here.

In many ways I'm okay with this. The obnoxious bigotry seems to be a catalyst to push me harder to protect my freedom. There are more "LGBTQ" friendly establishments in this area (PNW), but honestly, when I visit one, there always seems to be something "off" about them. It's very odd to me that I seem to have a warmer welcome in what we might consider "conservative" establishments, and Lord knows they are more affordable. Maybe they were more welcoming because they felt they'd be "canceled" otherwise. I figure as society comes to accept bigotry, greed, and general meanness as virtuous, we will see if these more "conservative" establishment and people continue to show kindness. Time will tell.

It's fair to say, that in my travels if there's one thing I have come to realize is that in this ever increasing tribal society, I find myself without a tribe, a complete independent, a true maverick. The LGBTQ tribe, the Pagan stuff, it all had its place in my history, but I find that in these areas I still was basically a square peg in a round hole, and I think they knew it (that I didn't belong), it would explain the somewhat dry vibes I would get from many in the groups over the years. I was always treated politely, but never really part of the clique.

And it is a clique, that's what the world is, a big group of warring cliques, and I don't seem to fit into any of them.

So as for the times ahead, I intend to continue on as I've been doing for the last decade, that is, enjoying exploring my non-conformist style, exploring my soul, tuning out the haters, treating people as I'd want to be treated, and I think... the world will likely leave me alone to be myself provided I stay out of everyone's way and mind my own business.

My only concerns are frankly outside of the purview of this website, that being I am a little concerned about hyper inflation in a situation where I'm already somewhat strained as it is, I'm a little concerned about a hard economical crash, and I'm a little bothered by the current administration kicking blue states in the proverbial balls, threatening to cut off all Federal funding if states like Washington don't lock-step with the current regime, all the while, the Federal government helps itself to 22 cents of every dollar I earn now. It's going to piss me off if some wild fire wipes the town I live in off the map, everything I own going up in flames, while he tells Washington to kick rocks, while taking my money and sending it to Florida because it's a red state. I can certainly see it.

But... aside from that, I don't think they'll come after my skirts.

[Jim]

I have some similar concerns but am blessed by other Christians who mostly accept me so I still have a small "tribe."

I'm a little bothered by the current administration kicking blue states in the proverbial balls

Incoming (I could say more about it, but don't want to stir up partisan rancor), not current.

[Grok]

The closest thing I have ever had to a tribe was science fiction fandom. Haven't had any involvement since covid arrived in the Seattle area, back in early 2020.

[moonshadow]

I have some similar concerns but am blessed by other Christians who mostly accept me so I still have a small "tribe."

I'm a little bothered by the current administration kicking blue states in the proverbial balls

Incoming (I could say more about it, but don't want to stir up partisan rancor), not current.

Yeah, that's what I meant. In fairness, it's hard to tell.

I could say a lot too, but I will also refrain. It just doesn't seem to make a difference.

But anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say with this thread is that I don't think any part of the U.S. will be returning to the days of the deep south in the 1950's and prior. Gays, lesbians, trans-women, and skirt wearing men (what few of us there are) are here to stay and at this juncture we're all very much ingrained into American culture whether the haters want to admit it or not.

Realistically the only thing they can do is remove restrictions on businesses and entities that required them to perform services for these different groups (e.g. not having to bake a gay cake), and encouraging the corporate sector to dispense with "diversity and inclusion". Some of us may not be able to wear skirts at the workplace much longer, and others may not be able to get their estrogen. Again, neither of these matters will fall on me personally as I already don't share this part of my life with professional colleagues, and I'm not on estrogen.

Society will insist on calling me a "man", and to that I say... "uh... oookay.." In all my years I've never been accused of "being a MAN" by the general public, until I started wearing skirts. It's actually kind of ironic.

The closest thing I have ever had to a tribe was science fiction fandom. Haven't had any involvement since covid arrived in the Seattle area, back in early 2020.

My tribe is me, my wife, and our dog.

[DrFishnets]

A great quote from the late great comedian and actor George Carlin.

People are wonderful. I love individuals. I hate groups of people. I hate a group of people with a 'common purpose'. 'Cause pretty soon they have little hats. And armbands. And fight songs. And a list of people they're going to visit at 3am. So, I dislike and despise groups of people but I love individuals. Every person you look at; you can see the universe in their eyes, if you're really looking.

[moonshadow]

A great quote from the late great comedian and actor George Carlin.

People are wonderful. I love individuals. I hate groups of people. I hate a group of people with a 'common purpose'. 'Cause pretty soon they have little hats. And armbands. And fight songs. And a list of people they're going to visit at 3am. So, I dislike and despise groups of people but I love individuals. Every person you look at; you can see the universe in their eyes, if you're really looking.

That's why I'm not a Democrat.

[crfriend]

That's why I'm not a Democrat.

It's time to dispose of that obsolete notion, sir. There is but one party now, and its colour is that of greed and avarice -- green (the colour of the local money). Neither "side" gives a whit about the "little people" who make the place actually run -- all they care about are the super-rich. All of that was sold out -- lock, stock, and barrel -- in the 1980s and has only gotten worse since, culminating in the logical endpoint -- what we will see inaugurated, for a second time, come Monday, 2025-01-20.

So, do not believe there are two parties any longer -- that is only an illusion designed to keep the rabble aroused and looking away from the real problem, orchestrated with a finesse for population thought control that'd make major religious dominations' leaders blush.

Also do not believe in the purported divisions in the population -- that's a figment of the imagination caused directly by those in power -- again to keep the populace from looking in the right place for the problems. There is vastly more that unites us than divides us.

[Mouse]

So I live in a country being run my a bunch of rank ammeters who couldn't run a XXXX up in a brewery.... A previous similar government opened the flood gates around year 2000 and we now have many towns full of people who have very different morals about how you treat women from the rest of us. We are not allowed to talk about the problem and my local hotel is now full of more people who want to settle in the country. Our health service costs us more and more and never improves and the local school has never ending changing rota of pupils as the makeup of the local hotel changes. I worry for how my children will fair in the future but they are both adults now and making their own decisions and life now.

Me? I am having the time of my life. I am free to wear what I like 24/7. At the moment at 61 there is not much wrong with me, so I don't need the NHS and I hope that continues, since I hate waiting and news of 50 hour waits, which was in the press, fills me with dread. The influx of men who wear long dresses for various culture reasons gives a Mouse total invisibility to wear bright coloured skirts with no trouble. My work continues while my health holds and my company had its best year in 2024. We are a really small company of two people, me and Mrs Mouse. We serve very rich clients in big houses, so as long as you give good value, there is a steady stream of work, given that London is full of rich people in big houses from around the world. My retirement plan was messed up by the same 2000s government, so work will continue until I get put in a box.

So I am making the best of it and as you can see from my posted pictures living my life in what ever skirt takes my fancy. My working life is made far more fun by working in a skirt and the work I do is interesting and different everyday. I work in and around London, which despite the crummy Mayor, is a wonderful city to be in. Working in the city is not for everybody, but the clients and their houses have far more of the toys I sell and install, than houses in the suburbs or other towns. I love meeting new people and seeing their reaction to me. Most of the time I meet people and the small elephant is never mentioned, just accepted. Some times, it disappoints me that people do not want to know more about me....

So that is my take on the changing times. Things I know are going to change in the next few years are mainly health related to various members of my family. My younger brother is very ill with a terminal condition and my mother is 91 this year. I don't see my skirt wearing being changed by any government action, because how do you legislate against me in a skirt, when so many men are wearing dresses for cultural reasons and defiantly can not be touched by our current government.

So skirting in the UK 24/7 is totally possible if that is what you want to do and I do not see that changing unless Putin drops a bomb on us all and then all bets are off.

Happy New Year, Carry on......Stiff upper lip old boy....etc....

[moonshadow]

It's time to dispose of that obsolete notion, sir. There is but one party now, and its colour is that of greed and avarice -- green (the colour of the local money). Neither "side" gives a whit about the "little people" who make the place actually run -- all they care about are the super-rich. All of that was sold out -- lock, stock, and barrel -- in the 1980s and has only gotten worse since, culminating in the logical endpoint -- what we will see inaugurated, for a second time, come Monday, 2025-01-20.

Well, Democrats still exist for sure, but even among the Democratic party, there are two types, the "grass roots" Democrats, these are likely your neighbors and those you'd run into at the grocery store, likely union workers [0], but not necessarily, they don't obsess over LGBT and other cultural issues the way the the national Democrats do, for the small time "rank and file" Democrats, much like their "rank and file" Republican counterparts, it's more about the economy than anything else. Indeed, there is more than unites us that divides us.

I've noticed most Democratic voters don't worry so much about LGBT issues in much the same way most [Washington] Republicans don't really care about placing a bible in every classroom. In fact, I've not talked to many west coast Republicans who are for uniting Church and State, many are flat out atheist.They generally don't take issue with Gays, and transgender women, but they don't think it ought to be pushed on kids and they don't want to have their arm twisted into acknowledging pronouns. Frankly I don't think their request are unreasonable. Nobody should be forced to say anything they don't want to. I think people ought to be kind to one another, but I don't think it should be mandated. To mandate kindness is like mandating religion, you can't force acceptance. You can force people to say anything, but you can't force them to actually believe it.

Which is why I've often held to the belief that if you change the heart, then you change the mind. You CAN NOT change anyone's mind without changing their heart first. And the only way to change a human's heart is through persistence. In our case, we have to CONTINUE to demonstrate that we [men who wear unconventional clothing] are NOT the enemy! We are NOT out to harm anyone, we simply want to live our lives in peace, and mind our business.

We are NOT responsible for inflation, we are NOT responsible for liberal electoral wins, in fact many members here are straight up Republican voters! Most of us do NOT enter women's facilities, most of us answer to masculine pronouns, we are NOT trying to infiltrate women's sports, we are NOT transgender. At this juncture, I simply don't think there is a bullseye on us, and I'm not sure there will be.

I think our country as a whole is split up into three main political factions:

The ruling class, which will be occupying the Whitehouse as of tomorrow. (The modern day Republican party) (oligarchs)

The high level Democrats (national and state level, and labor unions [0]). They have absolutely no interest in improving the lives of the common people. They have their own oligarchs they answer to, but since they are "Democrats" they have to work harder at putting up a smoke screen to conceal their true corruption.

Then there's everyone else, the "we the people". Across the spectrum, we may identify as Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, Christian or atheist, but the reality is most of us, if you get right down to it, are actually quite libertarian in practice. Most of us are fine to leave people alone that we may not agree with on ideals and such, and we are usually okay to stay out of each other's way. We simply just don't want anyone twisting our arm... and we hate taxes.

And I think the last paragraph is why we don't have much to worry about, as far as what we wear and how society will deal with it.

[0] You may notice I mentioned unions twice, once I referred to union workers and grass roots, and then went on to accuse unions of being corrupt. I wanted to call out the distinct difference. Union workers are fine. They're just like non-union workers, mostly just putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their family's head. Most of them are pretty reasonable and generally a pleasure to be around.... The Unions themselves (the actual establishments), I've come to view as crooked as a barrel of fish hooks.

I remember Dave (PDX) and I used to have these arguments about unions. He swore to me that I just don't understand, that a rising tide lifts all boats... Well, I'm here now, and the ONLY reason I do as well as I do is because I average 60-70 hours per week on the job. If I worked a straight 40, then apples to apples, I would be in a deficit of $3420 per year. compared to living in Appalachia.

It's simple arithmetic:
Housing in Virginia: $480 per month, $5,760 per year
Housing in Washington: $2325 per month, $27,900 per year
I received a bump in pay of $18,720 per year to come out here.

Thus, my housing expenses have increased $22,140 per year, despite only a $18,720 bump in pay. Thus, in the red by $3,420 per year.

I didn't come here for the money. But I knew that from the beginning. I came here for other reasons, and we may yet move along at some point in the future, as there is no way this cost of living will work with my current retirement plans. I think there's a reason why there aren't many retirement people in the PNW.

Oh Dave will say "but you're NOT in a union, and that's why!". Maybe, but I have spoken to a few union workers at some of the places I've done jobs at, sure there are a few that do better than me, but to my surprise, many of these rank and file workers make about half the hourly wage I do, AND THEY'RE PAYING UNION DUES on top of that! To be fair, the company I work for is good, and I hope it stays that way. They're an old school company, and yes, there's probably an oligarch sitting at the top of the foodchain, but you know what... as long as that oligarch keeps paying me a living wage, then I'll keep showing up for work and fixing equipment for him. Because I too am an old school worker, if the company takes care of me, I'll take care of the company. As long as we have this understanding, I don't need no damned union!

[crfriend]

Well, Democrats still exist for sure, but even among the Democratic party, there are two types, the "grass roots" Democrats, these are likely your neighbors and those you'd run into at the grocery store, likely union workers [0], but not necessarily, they don't obsess over LGBT and other cultural issues the way the the national Democrats do, for the small time "rank and file" Democrats, much like their "rank and file" Republican counterparts, it's more about the economy than anything else. Indeed, there is more than unites us that divides us.

Well, what you're discounting here is the corrupting influence of the "upper tiers" of the system (pretty much every politico above the rank of dog-catcher) that's injected by the "primary" election system which requires massive amounts of money to play in and absolutely guarantees that all candidates take the "oath of Omerta" to the oligarchy. Face it, the local dog-catcher can't derail Elon Musk's plan for World Domination -- so he gets ignored, but once at the State level, the corruption kicks into high gear -- and is why the Republic failed. When certain "parties"/classes can determine who actually appears on the General Election ballot, the game is up. They've won -- and that's what happened.

What's left of the original Democrats and Republicans is only a vague memory, and only valid at local small-town levels, Any higher than that, the money takes over completely and candidates must be "pre-approved" before getting onto the General Election ballot. This subverts true democracy absolutely. The United States has a General Election process that's the envy of the world. It's auditable, it's transparent, and it's verifiable. But if you preselect who's on the ballot the above does not matter. We need to eliminate absolutely the "primary" election process and expunge it from operation and memory. Only then might we have a remote hope of restoring the Republic. Else it's going to stay an oligarchy.

Then there's everyone else, the "we the people". Across the spectrum, we may identify as Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, Christian or atheist, but the reality is most of us, if you get right down to it, are actually quite libertarian in practice. Most of us are fine to leave people alone that we may not agree with on ideals and such, and we are usually okay to stay out of each other's way. We simply just don't want anyone twisting our arm... and we hate taxes.

More to the point, we hate paying taxes for which we receive nothing in return. If, for instance, we had good roads, and national health care we'd likely not gripe so much. However, we have neither. We have an infrastructure that's crumbling and precious little access to health care. Health "Insurance" != "Health Care"! Recall that, always. Health "insurance" is a wealth-transfer scheme -- from poor to rich.

I remember Dave (PDX) and I used to have these arguments about unions. He swore to me that I just don't understand, that a rising tide lifts all boats...

That's because Dave did not understand that a boat with a big hole in its bottom doesn't float, so a rising tide does nothing to it -- and the "boat" that kept the "Main Street" economy afloat had the scuttling charges fired in 2020 because of "COVID". The "Wall Street" economy (which is where all the money is now) is doing just fine and the tide floats it handily because it still has its bottom intact. Everybody forgets that there are TWO ECONOMIES in the United States now, and the government only reports the behaviours of the "Wall Street" economy, ignoring "Main Street" completely.

[Grok]

I have noticed that a depression is being predicted by some YouTube videos. The obvious assumption is that a new depression will resemble the Great Depression of the 1930s. Another possibility is something like the Long Depression, which I understand was less severe but lasted longer.

[FranTastic444]

My tribe is me, my wife, and our dog.

In my case, it is just me and the wife. As it happens, I've been thinking about this recently. I don't need no friends, I don't need no family, I don't need any real physical social interaction - so long as I have my wife. I would be crushed beyond belief I were to lose her.

"This has shown itself to be a political winner," says Schweppe. Overall, the party spent $222 million on anti-trans and LGBTQ ads during the 2024 campaign" There is a certain section of society that love to hate and who use the good book in their justification. I think they will be emboldened under the current legislation and things will take a big backwards step for those impacted. I can see those of us on this forum being (even more than ever) lumped in with the trans and LGBT community.

I am a little concerned about hyper inflation in a situation where I'm already somewhat strained as it is, I'm a little concerned about a hard economical crash

Let's see how the tariffs go in the coming weeks and months and whether they turn out to be bluster / negotiating tactics. There are already other headwinds working against a return to low inflation and tariffs certainly have the capacity to spike inflation. The US stock market has all of the makings of a bubble at two levels - 1) the concentration of the Magnificent Seven within the S&P500 and Nasdaq exchanges and 2) a crazy amount of the worlds money is tied up in US assets across the various stock exchanges (figures vary, but I have seen estimates as high as 70%).

I have noticed that a depression is being predicted by some YouTube videos.

There is a lot of doom mongering going on in YouTube and it is a great way of getting thousands and thousands of views very quickly. If you take a look on YouTube, you will see a bunch of men predicting the decimation of the US auto industry any day now. The amusing thing is that if you look at their back catalog of videos, they have been making exactly the same proclamations for several years now. And I think it is largely the same when it comes to the videos relating to finance and the state of the economy. Of course, the day will come when they end up being right - crashes happen periodically. In *most* cases, if you have the luxury of being able to ride out a downturn, investments over time will always bounce back and recover. As an aside, I had a very aggressive investing strategy up until this weekend (trying to make up for bad retirement planning earlier in life). My employer has just changed our 401(k) provider and I took this opportunity to move the majority of my pension pot into a 2015 target date fund. I'll review this decision in a few months once we have a bit more clarity about how things will pan out with the new US administration.

[moonshadow]

Well...

It begins. Best of luck everyone, try to stay out of trouble!

I resolve to stop beating this dead horse. Maybe things won't be so bad, and if so, then that's good I suppose. Otherwise, it is what it is. There's nothing we can do about it at this juncture, other than just try to manage as best as possible.

[Jim]

Maybe things won't be so bad...

... for white, heterosexual male US citizens.

Let's care about other people.

[Barleymower]

So I live in a country being run my a bunch of rank ammeters who couldn't run a XXXX up in a brewery.... A previous similar government opened the flood gates around year 2000 and we now have many towns full of people who have very different morals about how you treat women from the rest of us. We are not allowed to talk about the problem and my local hotel is now full of more people who want to settle in the country. Our health service costs us more and more and never improves and the local school has never ending changing rota of pupils as the makeup of the local hotel changes. I worry for how my children will fair in the future but they are both adults now and making their own decisions and life now.

Me? I am having the time of my life. I am free to wear what I like 24/7. At the moment at 61 there is not much wrong with me, so I don't need the NHS and I hope that continues, since I hate waiting and news of 50 hour waits, which was in the press, fills me with dread. The influx of men who wear long dresses for various culture reasons gives a Mouse total invisibility to wear bright coloured skirts with no trouble. My work continues while my health holds and my company had its best year in 2024. We are a really small company of two people, me and Mrs Mouse. We serve very rich clients in big houses, so as long as you give good value, there is a steady stream of work, given that London is full of rich people in big houses from around the world. My retirement plan was messed up by the same 2000s government, so work will continue until I get put in a box.

So I am making the best of it and as you can see from my posted pictures living my life in what ever skirt takes my fancy. My working life is made far more fun by working in a skirt and the work I do is interesting and different everyday. I work in and around London, which despite the crummy Mayor, is a wonderful city to be in. Working in the city is not for everybody, but the clients and their houses have far more of the toys I sell and install, than houses in the suburbs or other towns. I love meeting new people and seeing their reaction to me. Most of the time I meet people and the small elephant is never mentioned, just accepted. Some times, it disappoints me that people do not want to know more about me....

So that is my take on the changing times. Things I know are going to change in the next few years are mainly health related to various members of my family. My younger brother is very ill with a terminal condition and my mother is 91 this year. I don't see my skirt wearing being changed by any government action, because how do you legislate against me in a skirt, when so many men are wearing dresses for cultural reasons and defiantly can not be touched by our current government.

So skirting in the UK 24/7 is totally possible if that is what you want to do and I do not see that changing unless Putin drops a bomb on us all and then all bets are off.

Happy New Year, Carry on......Stiff upper lip old boy....etc....

Mouse we live in the same world we are both handed the same sandwich and told its good for us.
Except one thing.. I don't think that our circumstance put upon us by our givenment is any mistake, lack of judgment or mishandling. The situation is just as it's meant to be. Our king graciously accepted £45m pay rise, amazon doesn't pay any tax and if you break the speed limit a fine arrives in a very efficient manner.
All this to say that the influx of immigrants is no mistake, no error was made. We are no more than cattle, I don't want to say that but I'm finding it hard to reach any other conclusion.