jadero

You must know a different set of parents than I do. Over the couple of decades raising my kids, interacting with other parents, and dealing problems at school, my experience is that people in general and parents in particular typically complain a lot more about other kids' lousy parents than lousy teachers or lousy schooling.

I would say that your comments were not wasted. Maybe I'm the only person who had never heard it framed as a battle over what can legitimately be called a mental illness, but at least one person has new insight into the issue.

I would guess that it was for the same reason that you "wasted" your excellent points regarding mental illness. To participate in the discussion, to raise issues that are perhaps not properly considered or analyzed, and to get the ideas out there for use by others. Isn't that why we're all here, to learn, teach, discuss, share?

So now that police have a clear connection between the original threats and the people who made those threats via the presumably real identity of the person who made the freedom of information request. This means that the investigation into the original complaint can move forward quite easily, right? Right?

Also, since when is it reasonable to keep secret the identity of those making successful freedom of information requests.

I think the key is found in the terminology. They didn't steal, they diverted. We have to call theft where we see it, not paper it over with euphemisms.

And we didn't move to anywhere from anywhere. Culture is changing, and it's changing for the better. Where it seems to be getting worse - it's always been that bad. Those people are just getting louder as they dig their heels in deeper.

This is something I've wondered about for several years now. Are some of these things actually becoming more prevalent or increasing in severity or is it like a cornered animal fighting for its life?

I think we need to be vigilant either way. Sometimes the cornered animal prevails and sometimes incipient rescue causes the victim to succumb because they think the fight is over.

I'm not worried about what's causing it anymore ... I already know it's human behaviour

What worries me the most is ... human behaviour

This is why I've started pushing back on those who criticize me for my attention to the "small" things. Those small things are founded in the same ideologies and cognitive and statistical failures that lie behind the big problems.

Everything we can do to fix the small things at their source will take us a step closer to fixing the big things. Short of some dictator taking over and forcing us to do what's necessary, our best line of attack is on the underlying ideas and behaviours.

That is also why I tend to doomerism. What we have now is the result of 60 or more years of concerted effort, with Reagan and Thatcher representing the ideological tipping point. We now have 50 years of those ideologies becoming so entrenched that everyone just takes them as objective fact. That means that only variations on the theme are generally accepted as legitimate areas of discussion.

I was talking to someone about what we do out here in the boonies all winter. One of the things I talked about was snowshoeing. While I was talking, I realized that it's been at least a decade since I've been able to snowshoe anywhere other than on the lake after it freezes. It's not that there is never any snow in the hills, but it never lasts long enough to matter.

I was raised to understand that respecting a person's right to how they are called is not a symbol of respect, but a demonstration of respect.

While there are certainly some very big threats out there, it's my opinion that they are another expression of some of the same ideologies behind the fight against the right to be called how you want to be called. Further, it's my opinion that we cannot fight those threats without also fighting those ideologies, wherever we find them.

Freemasonry is at the heart of some OG conspiracy theories , dating back to at least the 1700s.

Fair enough.

Interesting stats. I can imagine the arrow of causality going both ways.

(I don't know why you're being downvoted for comparative statistics...)