AFKBRBChocolate

That's not the message I took away from what he said. What I got is that people should have diverse role models because if everyone is just like you, you don't learn empathy. He had someone who would correct him when he was wrong in a kind way, and that person happened to be gay. That experience helped him learn empathy and kindness.

As a straight white guy, I also feel that I've benefited from getting to know queer folk on a personal level - that that experience helped me understand and appreciate diversity, even for people from groups that I haven't yet gotten to know personally. I get to know someone who's, say, trans, and get at least a little exposure to what their experience of life is and how it's differed from mine. It makes me work that empathy muscle, so it's more developed when I met the next person whose experience is different from mine.

That doesn't mean that those people have some responsibility for educating me or teaching me anything. It just means that my exposure to people from different walks of life is useful for my own personal growth.

This one might need explanation. This old folk song had different verses people would sing, so there were basically different versions. A popular set was:

She'll be comin' around th mountain, when she comes
She'll be comin' around th mountain, when she comes
She'll be comin' around th mountain
She'll be comin' around th mountain
She'll be comin' around th mountain, when she comes

She'll be drivin' six white horses, when she comes
She'll be drivin' six white horses, when she comes
She'll be drivin' six white horses
She'll be drivin' six white horses
She'll be drivin' six white horses, when she comes

O, we'll all go out an' meet 'er, when she comes
O, we'll all go out an' meet 'er, when she comes
O, we'll all go out an' meet 'er
O, we'll all go out an' meet 'er
O, we'll all go out an' meet 'er, when she comes

O, we'll kill the old red rooster, when she comes
O, we'll kill the old red rooster, when she comes
O, we'll kill the old red rooster
O, we'll kill the old red rooster
O, we'll kill the old red rooster, when she comes

And, we'll all have chicken an' dumplins, when she comes
And, we'll all have chicken an' dumplins, when she comes
And, we'll all have chicken an' dumplins
And, we'll all have chicken an' dumplins
And, we'll all have chicken an' dumplins, when she comes

Like a lot of songs for kids, people often added a callback response at the end of every line (in this case, after each time it says "when she comes"). The one for the verse about killing the old red rooster was "whack whack whack."

He's been working at the company for more than 15 years and still struggles to read any significant block of text, so I'm worried for him. It's not that he prefers audio, it's that text is a real problem for him.

And don't misunderstand me: I'm the guy's biggest cheerleader; I very much want him to succeed and am happy with any viable workaround he finds. I'm not pushing any sort of personal bias on him. The company works with a lot of text.

Here's the pertinent section from the article:

Reflecting on his own experiences, Obama shared that young men need a “diverse” network of role models – and that one of his own was his out gay college professor.

“I had a gay professor in college at a time when openly gay folks still weren’t out a lot, who became one of my favourite professors and was a great guy and would call me out when I started saying stuff that was ignorant,” Obama shared.

“You need that — to show empathy and kindness.”

So his point was really that people need a diversity of types of people as role models, and that one of his own was a gay professor who showed empathy and kindness. The meme changes it a bit.

Life is hard enough without those extra challenges. Hang in there.

I read a lot of science fiction, and a younger friends at work frequently asked me for recommendations, and he liked talking about the books after reading them. At some point I found out that he exclusively consumes them as audiobooks, which is fine and I didn't think much about it. Some years down the line, when I was getting ready to retire, I had to pass on things to him. There was enough of it that, in addition to working elbow-to-elbow with him, I documented all the details in some long emails. When we meet, I'd say "The details are in the email," and focus on explaining the big picture.

It became obvious that he never read the emails. When I talked to him about it, he admitted that he really struggles with any long block of text. The guy is really smart, and he knows a lot about a lot of things, but he gets all his info from audio and video because struggles to consume text. There's clearly some kind of learning/mental issue going on there. It's going to make the job tough for him, but I hope he works it out.

I don't know either, but it was really interesting to watch.

There must be a torrential rain of little duck poops around that guy.

Probably worth mentioning to a doctor or dentist (don't have to mention the BJ part - just that you get lockjaw). Sometimes there are things that can be done.

The main thing I've made in a pitcher is margaritas.

Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?

Yes

I try to use it like the original Reddit vision, which was that up and downvotes are for comments that I think add to the conversation. I'll upvote a comment that I disagree with if it's well thought out and well articulated (then I'll say why I disagree).

The exception is when it's a thread looking for factual information. If someone asks for objective information, I'll downvote wrong answers.