I’ve been doing a deep dive into the Duggar train wreck in preparation for the documentary coming up. Reading court documents, police reports, AMAs, Google, this subreddit, obituaries, news articles, etc. The common element in their descent into disgrace is arrogance, hypocrisy, hubris, or whatever you want to call it. Every step of the way.
2002-2003: Pest (14/15 yo) starts molesting young girls 🤮
2003: JB, Meech, and Holts made aware—JB brought Pest to pedo-friend state trooper to “report” his crime, but trooper failed to investigate and report. 😡
2004: Despite knowing they had a seriously disturbed son who had molested their own daughters, JB and Meech debut their family in 14 children and pregnant again. 🤑
2006-2007: JB runs for Arkansas State Senate and loses. 😮‍💨 4 more shows aired including one airing after the Oprah debacle in late 2006 (Family was in Chicago filming an interview, but it was cancelled when Alice tipped off Oprah that Josh had molested 5 girls). Oprah alerted Arkansas CPS. A second person (letter reader) also alerted CPS at this time. A police report was made. Apparently, CPS investigated but we don’t know the outcome of that. Meanwhile, starting in 2007, Alice and others were posting on OG snark boards about Duggar family dirt. 🤔
2008-2015: They really played with fire 🔥 here. An 8-year-run on national television portraying a wholesome, Christian, pure family.

 2013: Josh moves to DC to work for Family Research Council, a right wing organization dedicated to “family values” and “traditional marriage”. 🤢 2014: Meech records transphobic robocall that says in part, "I doubt that Fayetteville parents would stand for a law that would endanger their daughters or allow them to be traumatized by a man joining them in their private space.”🤬 2015: Lesbian couple protests Meech’s robocall by kissing in front of TTH with marriage certificate in hand. Photo goes viral and InTouch seeks them out for an interview. One of the women, Tandra Barnfield knew about the Duggar family secrets and pointed the reporter in the right direction to obtain a FOIA for the 2006 police report. InTouch publishes the police report and 19KAC was cancelled and Pest fired from FRC. 🌞 

June 2015: JB and Meech, Jill and Jessa appear on Megyn Kelly - JB and Meech lie and revictimize their daughters
Aug 2015: Pest goes back to AR in disgrace only to have the Ashley Madison scandal erupt just 3 months later-so much for “family values”
Dec 2015-2021: Wait, they come back only this time without Pest. Counting On comes back on for another 5 years. How did this show not jump the 🦈, I do not know.
Nov 2019: Pest’s car lot raided by HSI Apr 2021: Pest arrested for CSAM June 2021: Counting On cancelled Dec 2021: JB lies under oath—“can’t remember” Dec 9, 2021: Pest convicted 😈 Dec 14, 2021: JB loses Republican primary 😵‍💫
They could have stopped the train wreck at so many points but 💰 🤥👺won out. Most tragically, if Bobye and other friends can be believed, 13-year-old Pest felt guilt and remorse and could have been rehabilitated if proper steps were taken in 2003.

Note: Most of these policies are renewed from my former governorship race.)
The points I present for my candidacy of the governorship of West Virginia will include:
EVERY MAN A KING
The Destruction of Excessive Bureaucracy
The Strengthening of the Supreme Reality of America
The Fair Share of Taxation
The New Deal's Resurrection
The 2nd Amendment Reexamined
The Policy of Healthcare
Establishment of the State CO-OP Corporation ———————————————————————————
We will strengthen unions for the sake of the bargaining power and workplace democracy, we shall build hospitals in WV, bridges, factories, and create jobs. We will make the common man feel important, involved, and free. The elimination of unemployment in WV, and the raising of the minimum wage to 15 dollars, as well as the shortening of the work day to 6 hours! Every able-bodied man will have a good-paying job, under our administration. Furthermore, we wish to introduce the 'Economic Efficiency Plan'. We will ensure every family and every community has the resources and power to form their own lives, American lives.
It is imperative that excessive bureaucracy must be cut out, and the swamp must be drained. Spending put towards projects that face no clear-cut goal or efficient plan will not be tolerated. Inefficient bureaucrats will be fired and audits will be regularly issued towards committees and state functionaries.
There is neither black, nor white. Neither Asian, nor Hispanic. There is only American. All Americans will be equal, in the workplace, in the school, and before the law. They will work as America, and towards a goal that is uniquely American, that is, the prosperity of all peoples. Such will be established in our state of West Virginia.
A progressive income tax on the wealthy. Every man must be a king, the great banquet that is devoured by the elites must instead be a banquet for the common man. A man will make his pie, and keep his pie. No Rockefeller will come and take it away, and instead, hand him a meager salary that cannot pay his bills. The wealthy's money shall be used for public development, the support of our veterans, the elderly, and the sick.
We will heavily invest in new economic construction plans. We will reopen the PA pipeline, we will construct new roads, we will construct new buildings, new plants, new factories, new trains, new hospitals, and we shall make jobs in the process! Silent factories will once more roar with life. Restart nuclear age within PA, reopen and open new powerplants off of safer plutonium to provide free energy for electric cars and get off of less and less natural gases.
The strengthening of communities. Churches, tradition, and communities will be revived. The right to bear arms will be bolstered. Communities will self-manage, and work as organisms in the great social machine that is our state and our nation.
On the new policy of healthcare, we will act to eliminate all private healthcare sectors of West Virginia in turn for a totally free, state provided healthcare system that can both treat you for little cost, and eliminate the problem of healthcare from your life, destroying stresses for the poverty stricken rural sectors of West Virginia, with all of the healthcare funding being provided by heavy taxation reforms of the rich. In addition, healthcare education and training will be shortened to the minimum required to become a doctor to prevent the economic pandering of students to spend more time in college paying for a health education.
One of the first enactments of my administration will to establish the SCOC, stated above.What will the SCOC be? It will be a state corporation that would fund more, and more economic Cooperation communities of labor throughout West Virginia. For example if we funded miners in northern WV to establish a CO-OP, they as a group would own the land together and sell the excess materials together, with the state requiring a quota of the CO-OP's mined materials to sell on the external market. This with each CO-OP being a council democracy, provides the workers of our GREAT Miners state of West Virginia to prosper in liberty of the fruits of his labor.

With the Fate of Iberia DLC, Paradox introduced the new Struggle mechanic. They next intend to apply this system in Persia this year, and I'm very interested to see what they come up with, and in what ways the system can be expanded. That said, I think Italy would be a fantastic place for a new Struggle region. This is a long post discussing what that would look like.

Guelphs and Ghibellines

If you're not familiar with the topic, I recommend watching this video from M. Laser History, it gives an excellent overview of the topic.
For a TLDR; At around the 1066 start date, there is a power struggle between the Holy Roman Emperors and the Papacy, about who has authority over who, and about rights of investitute. Later (~1125) The Italian states in the Empire find themselves caught in the middle, and deep factionalism develops between the Guelphs (pro-Church) and Ghibellines (pro-Imperial). A lot of battles and wars, big and small, are fought over this, including the glorious War of the Bucket!
The rest of this post is me spitballing an idea about how this might be implemented. If you have any ideas about how this could be done, I'd be really interested to hear it.

Ideas About Implementation

For starters, the region of the struggle would at least be Northern and Central Italy, and probably all of it. To the best of my knowledge, South Italian rulers didn't play a direct role in this struggle historically, but it's not hard to envision an alternate history where they do.
However, unlike the Iberian Struggle, which has already begun at both start dates, I imagine a super-event for Catholics about the "Investiture Controversy" or something of the sort, which would start the struggle.
For the actors involved (Struggle Participants), I imagine five types:

1. Imperial: The Holy Roman Emperor.
2. Papal: The Pope. In in-game terms, whoever's Head of Faith for the Catholic faith.
3. Neutral: Every landed character whose capital is in Italy and is inside the Holy Roman Empire. This would include vassals of vassals. All Italian rulers will start in this camp. Some will stay, most will move to one of the following two types.
4. Guelphs: Those who wish to support the Pope.
5. Ghibellines: Those who wish to support the Emperor.

In terms of phases, I'm not too certain. A lot of the phase effects in Iberia concern relations between cultures and faiths, which aren't so applicable here. I've come up with this so far (excuse the boring names, these are just placeholder):

1. Dormant: Relatively few effects from the struggle. Progresses to Limited.
2. Limited: A Casus Belli is unlocked for Guelphs against Ghibellines and Ghibellines against Guelphs. Each side can call others of their faction to the war. Imperial and Papal characters (so, just the Emperor and the Pope) can support their respective members if they are in such a war through character interaction (give money, add combat modifiers at the cost of prestige/piety, etc.), but cannot get involved. Character interactions exist for the Pope and Emperor to entice those not in their faction and who are not at war to join it. Progresses to Hostile.
3. Hostile: Emperor and Pope unlock a Casus Belli on each other which allows them to end the struggle. Neither side can call allies into the war. Guelphs join Pope, Ghibellines join Emperor. Regardless of who is attacker and defender, ticking warscore does not start for the Emperor until they occupy Pope's capital (Rome, probably), and does not start for the Pope until all Ghibelline land in struggle region is occupied by Pope and Guelphs. If Emperor wins, struggle goes to Imperial Victory Ending. If Pope wins, struggle goes to Papal Victory Endin. If it's a white peace, struggle progresses to Peace.
4. Peace: Very few (or no) effects from the struggle. Progresses to Dormant.

How do the phases actually progress to one another? Well, it could be just time, but ideally, it would be based on a type of action/character interaction that would be emblematic of friction between church and state. This would likely relate to mechanics regarding investiture. For example, every time a Catholic ruler appoints a bishop, or revokes a bishopric, the struggle progresses a bit. Basically, this whole struggle (or my idea of it) rests on the idea that Paradox has implemented some type of mechanic about investiture rights and the College of Cardinals, and where the outcome of the struggle would affect those. I'm gonna speak about the endings of the struggle broadly, and I'm gonna act as if those mechanics are already there. You can imagine that, at the start of the game, all Catholic rulers have full investiture rights, and that their ability to appoint essentially whoever they like gives them some ability to influence the election of a Pope (in a more involved fashion than CK2). I imagine the phases of this struggle being shorter and less equal than those of Iberia, where the Limited phase is significantly longer than Dormant or Peace.
The outcomes are as follows:

• Imperial Victory: Effects on Catholic faith would be that the Holy Roman Emperor gets some sort of disproportional say in the College of Cardinals and the election of a Pope. Free Investiture rights are maintained for all Catholic rulers, never to be challenged again until the end of the game. Effects on Italy would be that a number of the biggest Ghibellines (either by size, or contribution to the final Imperial-Papist war that led to this) would get a special contract type with the Emperor that gives significant bonuses and some reduced obligations. They would also be made into electors in the empire.
• Papal Victory: Effects on Catholic faith would be that, by default, free Investiture rights are disallowed, and Catholic rulers passing free investiture laws get a significant opinion malus with the Pope, as well as from their own Zealot stance vassals. Effects on Italy would be that all Guelphs would get a special contract type that disallows title revocation, allows war declaration, and has no obligations at all.

And that's basically all I've got. The specific values would play a big role in what does and doesn't happen here, but I can't begin to imagine how to go through balancing that. General pointers would be that Italians are far more willing to side with the Pope, but that the Emperor's support of Ghibellines would be stronger. Another thing might be to make one of the phase effects significantly decreased costs for upgrading/building castles, as well as any buildings which add fort levels. Essentially, marching an army from Germany all the way to Rome as the Emperor should be extremely difficult, dangerous, and time-consuming in the Hostile phase unless the Emperor has been diligent in supporting his Ghibellines and enticing others to switch sides in the Limited phase.
One last note is that this entire thing would also very much benefit from an overhaul of republics and city-states. They were an extremely important part of this conflict, and no representation of Medieval Italy would be complete without proper mechanics for them.
I guess the Struggle parts of this could be a mod. I haven't made a mod for CK3 yet, but I happen to be a programmer with some free time. I think I can do that. This would require Investiture/College of Cardinal mechanics though, with its own UI and all. I have no how to do that.
Let me know what you think of this, I would really love to hear someone else's take on how Struggle mechanics can be applied to Italy, and specifically the Guelphs and Ghibellines wars, since I find them very interesting. This has been sitting in my head for too long, and I'm happy to have it structured and proposed.

I’m looking for a good app or website that tells me gun laws and which states I can go to. I’ve looked at handgunlaws.us but was wondering if there is another that’s better.

As the title states I am trying to retrieve a birth certificate from my biological father. It is not for me. It’s for my half sister who is 18. He kicked her out back in 2022 and finally found my insta to contact me.
My current plan is to have her send him a single message stating “As I am no longer living under your roof I need you to hand over my BC and SSC please. If you refuse you will force me to involve law enforcement. We can meet at public place at x time.” If this a good idea or should I go a different route? He is known for being very abusive and manipulative. Which is why I want it in a public place and I will be recording every interaction as well (hence why a message rather than call)
She just recently graduated from high school and since being 18 she can no longer cash her checks because she has no form of I.D. at all. No permits, drivers license, state I.D. Nothing.
I can say thankfully she had a very loving friend and family of hers who took her in during the time she was kicked out till she found me to watch after her but even they can only do so much.
I’m not looking to go after him or anything like that I just want the easiest way possible to get these so we can get her moving on with her life and forgetting all about him and not having to worry. Right now Reddit is my only place to turn to, I don’t wanna stress my mother with this as she’s dealing with other things and I know she can’t do much as she is not related to her at all.

Hello,
I am having a hard time accepting this is who I want to be with for the rest of my life. I’ve been dating her pre-pandemic, went through all my life accomplishments with her, and continue to strive. She however hasn’t done much since. Plus, she now wants to move into our own home and begin a family AFTER I decide I want to propose (which she has been pushing this on me for a little while now). Keep in mind (and I don’t mean to come off snobby) I have a good job, making 6 figures year, where I’ll retire young & be able to pursue other things with a pension and all my cash set aside. I’m kinda scared she’s after me for my money and financial stability, especially cause of the pension and my state laws. Idk what to do. I don’t even really like physical attraction anymore with her and am truthfully scared of the future.
Issues come into play with my family, who absolutely love her. And don’t get me wrong, she’s awesome, but I just don’t trust her like that and it’s my life. But I’m so terrified of upsetting everyone and creating an uproar. Especially when is comes to her father, who is a legitimate saint. But at the end of the day, I’m worried. Especially since her mom is lazy and doesn’t do anything, causing her whole family to be in the hole, and making her father work 3+ jobs at any time of the year. I’ve tried to express this to her as well, and she says that wouldn’t be her, but I have a very, very, very hard time believing it, especially after recent behaviors she has demonstrated. Am I the ass hole?!?

Hello Again. I posted our preliminary study previously, but this one is now our official study that will be presented at the national psychology convention! I received some fantastic input and responses last time and I am hoping to replicate these findings. I plan on publishing this research.
Official blurb: Our Penn State psychology department research team is exploring perceptions of masculinity pertaining to grooming habits. Please consider filling out our survey. You will be asked questions about perceptions of masculinity norms and view photos concerning grooming habits. The entire survey will take between 10-15 minutes. Requirements for participation are 18+ and male-identifying. Thank You for your consideration.
Survey Link

A terrifying movie or book or show gets your blood pumping in the moment of consumption, sure—we covered our eyes in Squid Game with the rest of the world. But for the most part, you rest easy afterward knowing that what you've witnessed is fiction, deliberately spun up to creep you out. When the real world gets eerier than anything Stephen King could dream up, that's when you have every right to get a little scared of the dark.
Once in a while, a story of a dreadful disappearance, demonic possession, or devil worship will land in the local paper instead of a pulpy old paperback. We've rounded up the most unnerving real-life tales below. In honor of spooky season, here are eleven we can't stop thinking about.

The Axe Murder House

The Villisca Axe Murder House in Villisca, Iowa is a well-known tourist attraction for ghost hunters and horror lovers alike. The site of a gruesome unsolved 1912 murder, in which six children and two adults had their skulls completely crushed by the axe of an unknown perpetrator, was purchased in 1994, restored to its 1912 condition, and converted into a tourist destination. It costs $428 a night to stay at the old haunted home, where visitors always report strange paranormal experiences, such as visions of a man with an axe roaming the halls or the faint screams of children.
But in November of 2014, the haunting took a darker turn. Robert Steven Laursen Jr., 37, of Rhinelander, Wisconsin was on a regular recreational paranormal visit with friends when true horror struck. Per VICE:

His companions found him stabbed in the chest—an apparently self-inflicted wound—called 9-1-1, and Laursen was brought to a nearby hospital before being helicoptered to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said Laursen suffered the self-inflicted injury at about 12:45 a.m., which is around the same time the 1912 axe murders in the house began.
Laursen recovered from his injuries, but has never spoken publicly about what occurred that day. For Martha Linn, the owner of the home, the incident was very upsetting. "It's publicity, but it's not exactly the kind of publicity you desire to have. I don't want people thinking that when they come to the Villisca Axe Murder House something's going to happen that's going to make them do something like that.” The house remains open for tourist visits and overnight stays today.
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The Haunted Doll

When you think of haunted dolls, it’s likely the creepy old Victorian-looking porcelain kind that springs to mind. None of which you probably have laying around. Still, don’t get too comfortable around any kids toys too soon, though: a Disney’s Frozen Elsa doll that was gifted for Christmas 2013 in the Houston area made headlines earlier this year when it seemingly became haunted.
Per KPRC2 Houston News:

The doll recited phrases from the movie Frozen and sang “Let It Go” when a button on its necklace was pressed.
“For two years it did that in English,” mother Emily Madonia said. “In 2015, it started doing it alternating between Spanish and English. There wasn’t a button that changed these, it was just random."
The family has owned the doll for more than six years and never changed its batteries. The mother says the doll would randomly begin to speak and sing even with its switch turned off.

The family decided to throw the creepy doll out in December of 2019. Weeks later, they found it inside a bench in their living room. “The kids insisted they didn’t put it there, and I believed them because they wouldn’t have dug through the garbage outside,” Madonia told KPRC2 Houston News.

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At that point, Elsa ceased to sing the English rendition of “Let It Go” altogether, speaking only Spanish when pressed. The family then double-bagged the bizarre doll and placed it at the bottom of their garbage which was taken out on garbage day. They went on a trip shortly after, but when they returned, Elsa too had come back, and was waiting in the backyard of their home.
This time, the family mailed Elsa to a family friend in Minnesota, who taped the haunted doll to the front bumper of his truck. It doesn’t seem to have made its way back to Houston yet, as per Madonia’s latest February Facebook update on the creepy doll.

A Deadly Exorcism

In August 2016 in North London, 26-year-old Kennedy Ife began acting strange and aggressive following a pain in his throat. He reportedly bit his father, threatened to cut off his own penis, and complained of a python or snake inside of him before his family restrained him to a bed with cable ties and excessive force.
As the BBC reported:

“The family then set about attempting to ‘cure’ Kennedy through restraint and prayer over the next three days, the court was told.”

His brother, Colin Ife, told police:

“It’s clear that thing was in him, what we believed was a demon because it was not natural. It was clearly trying to kill him,” he said.
“We had to restrain him for himself. It was clear if we didn’t restrain him, he could have tried to harm people in our family.”

Kennedy Ife had been bound to his bed for three days without medical attention when his brother called emergency services, explaining that Kennedy Ife was complaining of dehydration. He appeared to have developed breathing issues, and was pronounced dead at 10:17 a.m.
As The Independent reported:

While police were at the house Colin Ife allegedly carried out an “attempted resurrection” by chanting and praying for Mr. Ife.

All seven of Kennedy Ife’s family members were accused of manslaughter, false imprisonment, and causing or allowing the death of a vulnerable adult. A post-mortem examination revealed over 60 wounds including a possible bite on Kennedy Ife’s body, and his father, Kenneth Ife, along with four of his brothers, sustained injuries as well.
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The BBC reported:

Kenneth Ife told jurors he ordered his sons to take shifts and use "overwhelming force" but denied that an "association with cults, occults and secret societies" played any part in the death.

After a four day jury deliberation, all seven family members were cleared of charges on March 14, 2019.
📷Witches prepare themselves for a journey by broomstick to the Black Mountain, circa 1650. From a 17th century Dutch copperplate by Adrianus Hubertus.Hulton Archive

Dead Animals in the Walls

When the Bretzuis family decided to insulate their home in Auburn, Pennsylvania in 2015, they discovered that it had already been—with scores of dead animal carcasses.
As Fox reported:

The dead animals were wrapped in newspapers from the 1930s and 40s and were among half-used spices, and other items.
After removing the items they sent hundreds of artifacts and carcasses to an expert in Kutztown.

The expert attributed the rotting animals in their walls to Pow-wow or Dutch magic, a ritual originating in the culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch to treat ailments and gain physical and spiritual protection. The Pennsylvania Dutch were a group of German-speaking settlers to Pennsylvania in the 1600 and 1700’s, and are often of Lutheran, Mennonite, or Amish faiths.
The Washington Post notes on the magic:

Many of the spells deal with the care of livestock, finding water, or the treatment of minor ailments, reflecting the conditions and concerns of early American settlers.
But powwow also has within it a tradition of darker spells, and even of such things as conjuring demons.

One notable ritual in their tradition is this hex to create loyalty in a dog:

To attach a dog to a person, provided nothing else was used before to effect it: Try to draw some of your blood, and let the dog eat it along with his food, and he will stay with you.

The mold found on the rotting carcasses in the Bretzuis home has caused illness among the family members, and they say that the odor hasn’t gone away.
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Florida Devil Worshipping

Friends noticed that Danielle Harkins, a 35-year-old schoolteacher near St. Petersburg, Florida, started acting strangely in June of 2012, developing an interest in demonic rituals.
Soon after, she was arrested for abuse of seven of her former students, as the Tampa Bay Times reported:

Danielle Harkins told the kids they needed to rid their bodies of demons as the group gathered before dusk Saturday around a small fire near the St. Petersburg Pier. They should cut their skin to let the evil spirits out, police said she told the children. Then, they needed to burn the wounds to ensure that those spirits would not return.
When Harkins held a lighter to one teen's hand, wind blew the flame out, police said. That prompted her to douse his hand in perfume before setting it on fire. The boy suffered second-degree burns, police said.
Another teen was cut on the neck with a broken bottle, police said. Harkins used a flame to heat a small key, which she then used to cauterize the wound.

The police were notified because a friend of one of the students who participated in the ritual raised alarms. However none of the students themselves told their parents about the event or would comment following the arrest of Harkins for aggravated battery and child abuse.
NBC reported:

Investigators said they've spoken to Harkins, but she didn't spell out what type of religion would require such drastic measures.
"She hasn't informed us exactly what she was trying to accomplish with this," Puetz [of the St. Petersburg Police Department] said.

The Death of Elisa Lam

Elisa Lam was last seen on January 31, 2013 in the lobby of the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. She was vacationing through the West Coast, documenting the trip on her blog, and checking in with her parents every day. On January 31 those calls stopped. Lam had vanished. Soon the police were involved and her parents arrived to help with the search.
They had nothing. That February, LAPD released elevator surveillance footage of Lam before her disappearance. The footage shows Lam behaving strangely in the elevator, appearing to talk with invisible people, peering around the corner of the door, crouching in the corner, and opening and closing the door. But what exactly is going on in this video raises more questions than answers. Theories range from psychotic episodes, to demonic possession, to unknown assailants just out of the camera's view:
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Around that time, hotel guests started reported weird things happening with the Cecil Hotel water supply. As CNN reports:
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"The shower was awful," said Sabina Baugh, who spent eight days there during the investigation. "When you turned the tap on, the water was coming black first for two seconds and then it was going back to normal."The tap water "tasted horrible," Baugh said. "It had a very funny, sweety, disgusting taste. It's a very strange taste. I can barely describe it."But for a week, they never complained. "We never thought anything of it," she said. "We thought it was just the way it was here."

On the morning of February 19, a hotel employee climbed to the roof and used a ladder to investigate the hotel's water storage tanks. That's where authorities found the decomposing, naked body of Lam, whose personal items were found nearby. After an autopsy, her death was labeled accidental. NBC Los Angeles reported at the time about the strange circumstances in the hotel's past:

The tank has a metal latch that can be opened, but authorities said access to the roof is secured with an alarm and lock.The single-room-occupancy hotel has an unusual history. "Night Stalker" Richard Ramirez, who was found guilty of 14 slayings in the 1980s, lived on the 14th floor for several months in 1985. And international serial killer Jack Unterweger is suspected of murdering three prostitutes during the time he lived there in 1991. He killed himself in jail in 1994.In 1962, a female occupant jumped out of one the hotel's windows, killing herself and a pedestrian on whom she landed.

In February 2021, a Netflix doc called Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel explored Elisa's tragic case and the history of the "cursed" Cecil Hotel.

An Exorcism in Indianapolis

Last year, the Indianapolis Star published a lengthy report on a family terrorized by three children allegedly possessed by demons. The account of Latoya Ammons and her family tells disturbing stories of children climbing up the walls, getting thrown across rooms, and children threatening doctors in deep unnatural voices. It would seem like something straight out of a movie–a work of fantasy, except all of these accounts were more or less corroborated with "nearly 800 pages of official records obtained by the Indianapolis Star and recounted in more than a dozen interviews with police, DCS personnel, psychologists, family members and a Catholic priest."
One of the more chilling sections of the report includes a segment about the possessed 9-year-old:

According to Washington's original DCS report—an account corroborated by Walker, the nurse—the 9-year-old had a "weird grin" and walked backward up a wall to the ceiling. He then flipped over Campbell, landing on his feet. He never let go of his grandmother's hand.

Another segment of the piece reads:

The 12-year-old would later tell mental health professionals that she sometimes felt as if she were being choked and held down so she couldn't speak or move. She said she heard a voice say she'd never see her family again and wouldn't live another 20 minutes.

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Utah Murder-Suicide

In September of 2014, a Utah teen returned to his home to find his parents and three siblings dead. "In a notebook, a 'to-do list' had been scribbled on the pages ... The list looked as if the parents were readying to go on vacation—items such as 'feed the pets' and 'find someone to watch after the house' were written," The Salt Lake Tribune reported. It appeared to be murder-suicide, but there was no suicide note, no prior indication that they would do this, no explanation. Police could not figure out why two parents would kill themselves and three of their four children.
For a year, no one knew exactly what happened to the family, or what would drive the parents to do something so unthinkable. In January, police released more chilling details in the case. According to accounts from family members and an investigation by police, the parents were driven by a belief that the apocalypse was coming and an obsession with a convicted killer. As the Washington Post reported:

Friends and family told police that the parents were worried about the "evil in the world" and wanted to escape a "pending apocalypse." But most assumed they just wanted to move somewhere "off the grid." Investigators also found letters written by Kristi Strack to one of the state's most infamous convicted killers, Dan Lafferty, who was convicted in the 1984 fatal stabbing of his sister-in-law and her 1-year-old daughter. According to trial testimony, he killed the victims at the order of his brother, Ron Lafferty, who claimed to have had a revelation from God. The story became a book called "Under the Banner of Heaven."Police said Kristi Strack became friends with Dan Lafferty, and she and her husband even visited him in prison.

The Phone Stalker

In 2007, ABC news documented a series of cell phone calls to families with terrifyingly specific death threats. The unidentified callers knew exactly what families were doing and what they were wearing.

The families say the calls come in at all hours of the night, threatening to kill their children, their pets and grandparents. Voice mails arrive, playing recordings of their private conversations, including one with a local police detective.The caller knows, the families said, what they're wearing and what they're doing. And after months of investigating, police seem powerless to stop them.

This went on with the Kuykenall family for months, who reported a caller with a scratchy voice threatening to slit their throats.

When the Fircrest, Wash., police tried to find the culprit, the calls were traced back to the Kuykendalls' own phones -- even when they were turned off.It got worse. The Kuykendalls and two other Fircrest families told ABC News that they believe the callers are using their cell phones to spy on them. They say the hackers know their every move: where they are, what they're doing and what they're wearing. The callers have recorded private conversations, the families and police said, including a meeting with a local detective.

"The Watcher"

After moving into their $1.3 million dream home, a New Jersey family started receiving creepy death threats from someone who identified themselves as "The Watcher." As CBS News reported earlier this year:
Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Since moving in, the owners said they have received numerous letters from the mysterious person. "The Watcher" claimed the home "has been the subject of my family for decades," and "I have been put in charge of watching and waiting for its second coming," Castro reported.The new owners have several children, and other letters asked, "Have they found out what's in the walls yet?" and "I am pleased to know your names now, and the name of the young blood you have brought to me."

The family was forced to flee from their home and later filed a lawsuit against the previous owners.

Issei the Cannibal

In 1974, 24-year-old Wako University student Issei Sagawa allegedly followed a German woman to her home in Tokyo, Japan, broke into her apartment while she was sleeping, and attempted to cut a piece of flesh off her body to consume. When she awoke, she reportedly fought him and he was later captured by the police. According to a 2012 Vice documentary that covered Issei's bizarre story, he was mistakenly charged with attempted rape and his wealthy father paid the victim a settlement outside of court to have the charges dropped.
Seven years later, in 1981, he allegedly committed a murder in France—shooting and eating a fellow University student, Renée Hartevelt. Issei creepily documented the entire experience with photographs and he was captured by authorities once again while attempting to dump the rest of her body in the Bois de Boulogne lake. He was deported back to Japan and committed to a mental institution. For reason unknown, his psychologists in Japan declared that he was sane. Furthermore, a legal technicality involving the French government refusing to turn over the documents from his case meant that his murder charges were dropped completely. He checked himself out of the mental hospital and has reportedly been walking the streets as a free man ever since. Issei has even become a controversial celebrity, writing over 20 books. According to Japan Today, he most recently fantasized about an unnamed TV actress, saying:
"I'll catch a glimpse of her thigh and think, 'That sure looks tasty.' But I don't feel like I actually want to eat it. As I accomplished the act of cannibalism once, there's no meaning to maintaining the desire for it anymore. In my book, I wrote that it [human flesh] was tasty, but that was not really true; I'd much rather eat Matsuzaka (Kobe) beef. But because I'd desired to consume human flesh for so long, I'd managed to convince myself that it would necessarily be delicious."
Issei Sagawa was also referenced in the Rolling Stones song "Too Much Blood," with the lyrics reading: "And when he ate her he took her bones/To the Bois de Boulogne." He is currently 73 years old and continues to live in Kawaski City, Japan. To this day, no one knows why France did not allow Japan to give him a trial.
📷MATT MILLER

Somebody had posted about what seems an interesting question.
The recording was in a two-party consent state, and was started in a location where there was no expectation of privacy. Obviously that is legal. However, the recording continued, as the two people moved to a location where the other person, who was unknowingly being recorded, did have an expectation of privacy. Obviously that is not legal.
So what I'm wondering, is the entire recording thus rendered illegal by the courts, or would it be possible to separate the singular recording into two separate audio files, the one legal and the one illegal. And then finally, would it be unacceptable to erase the illegally recorded portion, since this was a violation of state law? But I don't see that the person has to preserve evidence of their illegal recording, but maybe that's moving even further into illegality?

Hello Again. I posted our preliminary study previously, but this one is now our official study that will be presented at the national psychology convention! I posted here because I received some valuable input last time, and you all hit it out of the park with responses. I hope to replicate that enthusiasm.
Official blurb: Our Penn State psychology department research team is exploring perceptions of masculinity pertaining to grooming habits. Please consider filling out our survey. You will be asked questions about perceptions of masculinity norms and view photos concerning grooming habits. The entire survey will take between 10-15 minutes. Requirements for participation are 18+ and male-identifying. (trans included). Thank You for your consideration.
Take the Survey Here

Howdy all. I previously posted our preliminary study and I am now posting the final version. Please take a moment to fill out the survey. I would love to share the outcome with you when we publish the results.
Our Penn State psychology department research team is exploring perceptions of masculinity pertaining to grooming habits. Please consider filling out our survey. The survey concerns perceptions of masculinity norms as well as grooming habits. Photo prompts are included (fun, right?) The entire survey will take between 10-15 minutes.Requirements for participation are 18+ and male identifying. Thank You for your consideration.
Take the Survey Here

This wouldn't fit on AITA but tbh I just need to rant.
TL;DR: I've had a dumpster fire of a day with my family and husband, and really don't know where to post this.
My grandmother (81) is blind.
I'm (24) trying to move her into a new apartment in my complex.
I transfer all her bills and internet. I arrange all her paperwork and payments.
The whole beurocratic process takes almost a month.
She wants lunch? I take her. She needs groceries? I get them. She needs anything at all? I'll take care of it nana.
I have been her eyes and her right hand ever since I became an adult.
Even though my brother (18) lives with her and my dad (50's) lived with her up until yesterday, I've always been the one taking care of her. However I live 30 minutes away by tollway and car, and only have a bike, so my physical visits are limited. Hence why I'm helping her move closer.
My brother and dad refuse to clean anything so there's stains and roaches everywhere when i visit She even does her own laundry.
Today should've been the last day for anything major and then it would've been smooth sailing. I just had to pick up a uhaul, and meet my little brother and his friend he said was helping him at the old apartment to pick up furniture, then we'd stop and get gas, get some lunch, unload at the new apartment, and everything would be happy ever after. My brother has had a month to pack after all.
I get upstairs and my brother has everything stuffed randomly into boxes. The bottoms look like they might fall out, the beds haven't been taken apart, not everything is packed yet, and I'm starting to feel a little stress.
Apparently my brother's friend didn't show up so I told nana it would be okay, my brother and I would load the uhaul. So I ask my brother to help me with the washer and dryer and he says "Ummm.... how about nah." I tell him we should load those first because the heavier stuff needs to be behind the cab. He says I have no idea what I'm talking about, that he worked for a moving company for four months (when??) and he's in charge here.
I feel a bit of a panick attack coming on so I grab some water and pain meds for my nana since she's been having back problems all day. The door is wide open and the dog runs out so I grab him and help him in the uhaul (he's suuuper old and has lots of leg and joint problems)
I get back in the uhaul and call my husband (24, married for 2 or 3 years, it's common law so idk) and he doesn't pick up so I call four more times and at this point the panick attack is in full gear so I admit I was impatient when I picked up the phone. My husband asks to speak to my family so I give my nana the phone and my brother sees and says that I'm just like our mother. (Our mom used to call her sisters when I was having a panick attack or any sort of breakdown and complain about how much of a burden I was and straight up lie to them for sympathy making up things I did that never happened. She also pitted my brother and I against each other a lot.)
My nana hands the phone to my brother who just hangs up on my husband.
I called my husband back, still needing help with my panick attack, and at this point I'm yelling at my brother because he won't leave me alone. My brother is sitting there cooing at our nana telling her not to worry about me as if she's a dog and he's trying to soothe her from my behavior. He smirks and twiddles his fingers at me.
I almost screamed.
He proceeds to tell my grandmother that I'm mad at him because I didn't get my way and that I'm refusing to help him and that I'm pretending to be a know it all.
I start shouting at him.
My husband tells me I'm being petulant and at that point I hang up on him myself, go for a walk somewhere in the complex and ask my therapist if she can do an emergency session.
I vaguely explain my feelings at the moment and she just tries to reassure me that they all love me even if today is hard, and to send her an email about it we can discuss in session.
I'm bawling my eyes out and consider calling the suicide hotline instead but they suck so I just sit there and sob for a while.
When I've calmed back down I go back to the truck and just tell my brother I'll help him and we'll just do it his way.
He looks at me disgusted and asks me why it looks like I've been crying. I said because he was very mean and he says hes been nothing but pleasant and he didn't mean to make me cry. I said "well you did"
He says cool and starts to whistle and hum as we walk back to the apt, cheerily says "lady's first" at the stairs.
We get up there and I ask him what he needs help with. He says he plans on loading the washer and dryer last and he doesn't need my help until then. And that he's still in charge.
So I say "fine" and leave to go have some space for a while.
He texts me again. This is copied and pasted:
"I changed my mind come help me with these boxes so we can return the truck at 7 " (we don't need to return it at 7, just before tomorrow)
I told him no, I didn't feel like being treated like he was treating me, and he already said he didn't need help.
He proceeded to taunt me saying I was a whining little girl throwing a temper tantrum and I needed to grow up, not sic my husband on him (my husband asked to speak to him, I just wanted my husband to comfort me during my panick attack), and what the fuck was wrong with me? It must be that im on my period (I'm not for the record...)
He then texts me that he's ordered me a lyft to go home, that i'm useless, worthless, a waste of space, and HE'LL drive the truck to the new place (He just got his license a week ago and has never driven a truck like a uhaul before)
I of course don't get in the lyft and berate him for wasting our nanas money on getting one (I'm about to get a new card for her in the mail that I know for a fact only she will be able to use so this won't be a problem soon)
Now here's where things become a dumpster fire. My nana stops being able to move becauze her back pain is so bad and says she needs to go to the hospital. My brother informs me of this and then locks himself in his room.
I call 911 for my nana, tell her I'll take care of everything.
She goes to a hospital in an ambulance (fuck...... this is America btw) and I organize the back of the uhaul with what my brother has loaded (he has a glass lamp sitting up on a table in the back, standing stuff has not been laid flat, just.... so shitty, glassware sitting in high places) and ask my brother if he wants me to take the dog for the night. I get back to my complex, my husband helps me unload her stuff into her new apartment (some stuff broke anyways), we let the dog go to the bathroom, and I return the uhaul. She has until the 31st to leave the previous apartment. I don't know what to do but I've done all I can today.
I get home and start a bath and my husband sits in the bathroom with me explaining WHY he said what he said on the phone (calling me petulent)
I asked him if there was anything else he wanted to tell me and he said no.
So I said I wanted to be alone and he started crying and left.
I don't know what I need right now.
Maybe just to have said all of this to someone before I implode. I don't even expect anyone to read all this. I'm just not in a good state right now.
I haven't eaten all day so I'm probably just gonna leave this here and go eat something and go to bed before I hurt myself, so sorry if I don't respond.

Just to preface, my degree requires 20.0 credits for completion but I fucked up my first 2 years of undergrad which I like to think is due to extenuating circumstances. I’m switching programs from business to arts & going into my 3rd year doing summer school right now, on track to receive 5.5 credits by fall. I’ve already accepted that I’ll be taking a 5th year to graduate and get my cumulative gpa up as it sits at a 2.49 right now but my sessional gpa is a 3.7 and only going up. It’s also important to note that I’m a canadian citizen looking to attend law school, work and live permanently in the states. I would require a lot of financial aid as I’m currently on financial aid to complete my undergrad in Canada as well. The more I type this the more I lose hope but ultimately I was really hoping to get an outsiders opinion. What do law schools think of a 5 year undergrad? I intend on getting my cumulative gpa to a 3.8 at least. What are the chances of getting financial aid as an international student? How can I stand out?

​

I feel like I have to explain my resume because it is so much. I don't feel I am doing a good job self-representing my skills. I was a work-study at my college. This is where I learned how Fafsa and loans worked. I had to collect 1040s and govt IDs and other documentation to attach to specific forms that go into a student's file. This taught me about protecting people's information and execute a clear process. This is my first admin role. I graduated and started my job a month later in Jan 2019. So in this role, it is a high call volume call center. The name of my real title was HR Specialist. But I've googled that and higher titles and I'm not a specialist. I'm a generalist who is specialized in everything. We were the first point of contact and it wasn't enough to say, I don't know the answer. It wasn't enough to give a half answer. We had tough metrics to meet. We had to know everything in detail. I had to know state law for terminations and other non-company policies. I can't express to anyone how hard I worked to be the top NPS performer. I stayed as this tier 1 role the entire 3 years I was there but again, so many changes happened since 2019 and since I was so good at my customer service experience and the depth of my knowledge was extensive, I got selected to do things that no specialist would know unless that was their only job. So I take pride in my work here. It is in my nature to be the subject matter expert and teach others. The call center beat me up and eventually I decided my mental health was more important than my loyalty to a company. I went to work at a non profit but unfortunately there were too many bad seeds that I left. Before I did though, I was the first person ever hired into this role. I built this role. I built the structure of how I would support the hiring managers. I built out the relationships with colleges and companies - contracts and career fairs. They were happy with my services and the amount of talent I was bringing in but as mentioned, when your boss steals and the team acts in silos and is dysfunctional in general - you got to go. Now I'm at this company where I'm back in payroll. I don't think I mentioned that the "HR Specialist" role was heavily payroll focused. I never actually configured or processed payroll. But since I knew so much, it was easy to piece it all together. Btw, everyone in payroll said if you want to be successful in this role, you must learn how to pay a salaried pharmacist. They say many don't pick it up quickly. My training got cut short because of how smart I am. I kept getting told that I'm more than my title and how I know so much more than other people who had been in their 1 role for decades. I guess most people get a role, learn it, then promote and gain that additional knowledge. Well, not me because my last company demands you know every business process in detail as a tier 1. The next tier was called an HR Consultant. How vague is that. The difference was they were off the phones and did more back end stuff such as reports and investigating complicated questions. But get this - as mentioned we cannot hand off the phone to the second tier or the manager. We are fully responsible for ensuring the employee gets the right info in a timely fashion. And not only did I have to know the answer, the next step I had to do was email the Payroll Coordinator to actually make the changes. So I had to know why and how then tell them to do it. Of course I can be wrong but again, your performance rating is affected if you do. Okay back to this current role, here I am learning how to click which buttons to do specific tasks such as committing payroll or reversing a paper check. I know the BP, just never clicked the buttons before. Well great now I have that in my experience. I watched the contractors configure time tracking codes. My role now is to know this company's pay, time tracking and absence to a T so I can test and validate the system's configuration. I have to know when something is wrong and tell them what it needs to be. They're clicking the buttons to make it happen. So I want to go into HRIS because it is back of house and not call center. Plus my knowledge extends to other BPs so I can manage the whole org. Now the reason I was denied this HRIS tier 3 role, first ever at the company, is because I don't have 10 years of the actual config experience. Fair enough because we need a super strong team before we can offer lower tiered HRIS roles. But here I am in a position where my contract ends in 2 months and while my boss wants to convert me to permanent status, that is only possible if a role is open and if I get it. I want to be prepared for the next interview regardless of where. Interviewers say I make a great impression. But I can sense that I am not expressing myself well enough to convey how much experience I bring to the table. I am super excited to hear what you all have to say and I cannot be more grateful for you taking the time to read my novel to help me be more concise in writing and in my speech. Thank you again.

I feel like I have to explain my resume because it is so much. I don't feel I am doing a good job self-representing my skills. I was a work-study at my college. This is where I learned how Fafsa and loans worked. I had to collect 1040s and govt IDs and other documentation to attach to specific forms that go into a student's file. This taught me about protecting people's information and execute a clear process. This is my first admin role. I graduated and started my job a month later in Jan 2019. So in this role, it is a high call volume call center. The name of my real title was HR Specialist. But I've googled that and higher titles and I'm not a specialist. I'm a generalist who is specialized in everything. We were the first point of contact and it wasn't enough to say, I don't know the answer. It wasn't enough to give a half answer. We had tough metrics to meet. We had to know everything in detail. I had to know state law for terminations and other non-company policies. I can't express to anyone how hard I worked to be the top NPS performer. I stayed as this tier 1 role the entire 3 years I was there but again, so many changes happened since 2019 and since I was so good at my customer service experience and the depth of my knowledge was extensive, I got selected to do things that no specialist would know unless that was their only job. So I take pride in my work here. It is in my nature to be the subject matter expert and teach others. The call center beat me up and eventually I decided my mental health was more important than my loyalty to a company. I went to work at a non profit but unfortunately there were too many bad seeds that I left. Before I did though, I was the first person ever hired into this role. I built this role. I built the structure of how I would support the hiring managers. I built out the relationships with colleges and companies - contracts and career fairs. They were happy with my services and the amount of talent I was bringing in but as mentioned, when your boss steals and the team acts in silos and is dysfunctional in general - you got to go. Now I'm at this company where I'm back in payroll. I don't think I mentioned that the "HR Specialist" role was heavily payroll focused. I never actually configured or processed payroll. But since I knew so much, it was easy to piece it all together. Btw, everyone in payroll said if you want to be successful in this role, you must learn how to pay a salaried pharmacist. They say many don't pick it up quickly. My training got cut short because of how smart I am. I kept getting told that I'm more than my title and how I know so much more than other people who had been in their 1 role for decades. I guess most people get a role, learn it, then promote and gain that additional knowledge. Well, not me because my last company demands you know every business process in detail as a tier 1. The next tier was called an HR Consultant. How vague is that. The difference was they were off the phones and did more back end stuff such as reports and investigating complicated questions. But get this - as mentioned we cannot hand off the phone to the second tier or the manager. We are fully responsible for ensuring the employee gets the right info in a timely fashion. And not only did I have to know the answer, the next step I had to do was email the Payroll Coordinator to actually make the changes. So I had to know why and how then tell them to do it. Of course I can be wrong but again, your performance rating is affected if you do. Okay back to this current role, here I am learning how to click which buttons to do specific tasks such as committing payroll or reversing a paper check. I know the BP, just never clicked the buttons before. Well great now I have that in my experience. I watched the contractors configure time tracking codes. My role now is to know this company's pay, time tracking and absence to a T so I can test and validate the system's configuration. I have to know when something is wrong and tell them what it needs to be. They're clicking the buttons to make it happen. So I want to go into HRIS because it is back of house and not call center. Plus my knowledge extends to other BPs so I can manage the whole org. Now the reason I was denied this HRIS tier 3 role, first ever at the company, is because I don't have 10 years of the actual config experience. Fair enough because we need a super strong team before we can offer lower tiered HRIS roles. But here I am in a position where my contract ends in 2 months and while my boss wants to convert me to permanent status, that is only possible if a role is open and if I get it. I want to be prepared for the next interview regardless of where. Interviewers say I make a great impression. But I can sense that I am not expressing myself well enough to convey how much experience I bring to the table. I am super excited to hear what you all have to say and I cannot be more grateful for you taking the time to read my novel to help me be more concise in writing and in my speech. Thank you again.

Hello. I (F16) have two younger sisters (F13, F10) who have been homeschooled since Covid started. Once we all transitioned to virtual schooling, my mom made the decision to not convert them back. She does not teach them at all. She plays video games with them 24/7 and restricts their contact with anyone from the outside world. She hardly even lets them go to visit my older sisters, who live 20 minutes away, as she gets extremely jealous very quickly. They almost never see extended family.
My house is contaminated with bugs and mold. It is not so severe that I can't sleep comfortably, but I try to avoid the bathrooms and kitchen cabinets. I feel sick watching my two unhygienic younger sisters go through puberty in this hellhole with a narcissistic mother and a father who enables her reckless behavior. She is codependent on them, and has conditioned them to not express interest in anything other than video games. I feel like it is all my fault. They see me go to school everyday.
I live in the U.S, but the state I'm in has virtually no homeschooling laws. There are no mandatory check-ins or set curriculum that homeschool students have to follow under the guise of their parents, so by technicality, my mom is not largely overstepping the law. I do not think CPS would be effective.
The experiences that I read of those in this subreddit greatly reflect what my younger siblings are going through. They are too young to understand what's wrong with my mom, and they do not have the same opportunity that I did to see what other families were like.
I will probably try getting through to my dad first. He is completely submissive to my moms antics, but he is the best person to do anything about this situation. They are his kids too. I just wanted to reach out here to explain my situation. Has anyone gone through something similar or have any recommendations? I admire you all. Thank you for reading.

I’m in a sad situation where my ex-fiancé and I split a few months ago and did switch off time with our 1 year old daughter until Monday. She just fled the state with my daughter back to Oregon, without letting me see my daughter or setting up a plan to trade off baby monthly or whatever we agree to. She had said “we’re leaving tomorrow” “I am her mother I get to make these decisions” on Tuesday but didn’t until Friday, so I was at least able to file Temporary emergency (ex parte) custody orders and was granted full custody, and a child abduction prevention order. Both were granted, and signed by judge and served before she left. She left for Oregon anyways with my baby girl.
I don’t know what to do! I am crying as I type this I just want her in my life and me in hers. We freshly moved from Oregon to California (because she wanted to raise the kid around my family) and started staying with my dad. Obviously that didn’t work out. She kept her mailing as Oregon so is claiming the California laws don’t apply. I found out where she went yesterday and is going to stay, did a wellness check and the officers informed her she is breaking the court order. The police told me they can’t enforce much if I drive the 6 hours to go get my child and mom won’t respond to my text or calls. What do I do? I never thought I would be in this situation…

Ok, so this is probably the only place where I could rant about this whole situation. Is anyone else extremely infuriated about the obvious virtual signaling of some "allies" and straight liberals?
Where, in the USA, are homophobia and biphobia not a problem anymore? If they cared a tiny bit about LGBT problems or if they actually spoke to any cisgender gay or bisexual person, they'd be aware that homophobia is still rampant, and that conservatives haven't lost shit. Just because the Supreme Court requires states to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples that doesn't mean the battle is over.
Cisgender gays and bisexuals still face a lot of hate, gay couples can't walk in public without some random assholes shouting slurs, threats or even beating the crap out of them in some of the most progressive and LGBT-friendly cities. Gay and bisexual teens are bullied at school, rejected by their families, sent to conversion therapy camps and even disowned. Deranged parents demand school books portraying same-sex couples be banned. Don't say gay laws in red states. And the list goes on and on.
Any kind of representation in mainstream media gets completely rejected and it usually sparks a lot of rage and hate, one recent example of this is the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us. The third episode featured the story of a gay couple and it was reviewed bombed as fuck, the same thing happened with episode 7, which featured a lesbian kiss.
Real allies know that things still suck for the majority of openly gay and bi people. I'm in no way saying trans people don't suffer just as much as we do, but just because conservatives are now more vocal about "hating pronouns" and non-binary people, that doesn't mean they ever stopped hating the fa**ots and the d**kes.
What's the point of the whole LGBTQ+ community? When bigots upload videos shooting rainbow-colored cans, merchandise or destroying the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans Queer section of a store, most liberals go "Oh they are attacking trans people, we have to protect trans people" "Trans people are the most vulnerable minority, we have to do something". I agree, let's protect trans people, and maybe the gays, lesbians and bisexuals... if it's not too much to ask.
I'm not saying all liberals are like this, but most of them don't really give a shit about vulnerable minorities, they adopted trans people as their new protegees, so if you want to show you are open- minded and progressive you have to stand up for "trans rights". Ten years ago it was "gay rights" even if bisexuals and trans people were also suffering from LGBTphobia.
They are so out of touch with reality, it's as if I said, "Sexism is no more, women and men are totally equal right now, but conservatives are targetting non-binary people" or "Conservatives lost the war against black rights, racism against Black people is over, they are now targetting Asians and Latinos" How out of touch,with the real problems those groups face, would I have to be in order to make such stupid claims?