How I quit vaping and discovered that nicotine addiction isn’t very hard to beat

Now I’ve done it.  A few days ago, I quit vaping.  December 24 was my last toke.  I ran out of juice and haven’t bought any more.

Most people start vaping in order to kick cigarettes, basically regarding it as a safer substitution.  I wasn’t a smoker.  I started since it seemed pretty safe, and I figured it might help me stay perky and focused.  Freud did mention that his cigar consumption did that much for him.  Since in modern times we’ve figured out how to do that without breathing the smoke of burning plants all the time, I figured, why not?  I could get whatever boost it provided without goddamn cancer or goddamn COPD.  I found some pretty good juice too – it was like vaping a candy cane!  I took it further than Bill Clinton would’ve done in his wildest dreams, because I inhaled.

Why did I quit now?  It has nothing to do with being a better Mormon; I’m still a terrible one.  Mainly it’s for health reasons.  Vaping might not be as safe as I’d assumed.  Surely it’s better than sucking down a pack or two of tobacco leaves, but still, I’ve heard some things.  Also, I’m not entirely comfortable with being hooked on anything.  Other than that, now I have one less product to buy, and I’m cheap that way.

Are you hooked on nicotine?

First, I’ll cover some good news.  There are those who say that nicotine is a worse addiction than cocaine.  Most fortunately, that’s baloney.  In the past, I’ve dated three coke heads, and two were in and out of jail because of that noxious chemical.  There’s just no comparison; nicotine is nothing compared to the devil’s dandruff – or worse – Satan’s boogers.  Moreover, quitting nicotine isn’t even as close to as bad as quitting caffeine.

There are two ways to kick the habit.  First, you can taper down.  The other method is going cold turkey.  Some might be surprised that cold turkey ain’t that bad!

Whenever I’ve flown somewhere on vacation, I’ve left my equipment behind at home.  A vaporizer is a battery operated electronic device with a heating element.  Obviously stuff like that is going to get extra scrutiny at an airport.  Since all that is just bad juju, I’ve never attempted to bring a vaporizer on board a plane.  So what is it like, being in another city without a vaporizer to suck on?  I’ll get two or three fairly mild cravings that day, and less the next.  Big deal!  I’ve seen people getting a little irrational from nic fits before, but experiencing it myself it was nothing like what I expected.  Sudden nicotine deprivation certainly didn’t drive me mad.

On the other hand, when I’m at my desk and can’t find my vaporizer, it drives me up the wall!  I’m used to having that candy cane to inhale when I’m sitting there.  So this is how I realized that habit and ritual actually have longer claws than the nicotine itself.  Substitutes like gum and patches will provide nicotine, but doesn’t address the ritual component to it.  I did think of switching to jelly beans, but that would’ve been extra calories that I don’t need.  I also thought of vaping somewhere not at the desk to break the association, but I didn’t follow through.

How I stopped freebasing that candy cane

One of the cool things about vaping is that there is a very large selection of juices out there.  You get different flavors, and different concentrations too.  I started out with 36mg, which is as powerful as it gets.  That’s what I’ve been sucking down for years.  Then lately I switched to 24mg.  Going down to two thirds of the previous concentration wasn’t such a big deal.  Then the case of asthma that I’d been battling for a very long time went away.  Well, how about that!

I searched my supplies and finished off all my old oils, so I wouldn’t have any “sunk cost” considerations.  I finished all the fruit blends and chocolate flavors and so forth.  Then I bought a new bottle, 18mg concentration.  The next steps down were 12mg, then 6, and finally 3.  Those bottles were 30mL.  Dialing down wasn’t too difficult of an adjustment, but some might prefer to taper it slower with 60mL bottles for each step.

Finally, there was nothing left, so I packed up all the paraphernalia.  After that was the tricky part!  There was little nicotine in the juice by then, but at least I was toking on something.  They do have 0mg oil, and I could’ve got some of that, but it is what it is.  So for the next couple days, I was at my desk, thinking that surely the candy cane had to be somewhere within reach…  Gollum wants it, where did the tricksy little hobbittses put My Precious?

At that point, I could’ve gotten some more vape oil and fed the monkey.  However, I didn’t.  I decided that I’d stick to my plans because I am not a bitch.  As of now, I’m over the curve and doing pretty well.  No more changing batteries for me, or oil leaking everywhere, or gummed up igniters.  Anyway, hopefully this inspires someone.

J.K. Rowling is targeted by online mob of SJW crybullies for defending freedom of expression

J,K. Rowling, author of the famous Harry Potter novels, is now in hot water with a howling horde of Internet crybullies.  These sorts of SJW dogpiling incidents can get pretty bad.  In Rowling’s case, some of the harassing messages are particularly surreal.  She’s a successful author, and Social Justice Warriors are a bunch of losers.

How a feminist got branded a heretic

What set it all off was a Twitter message by Maya Forstater from over a year ago which said:

What I am so surprised at is that smart people who I admire, who are absolutely pro-science in other areas, and champion human rights & womens rights are tying themselves in knots to avoid saying the truth that men cannot change into women (because that might hurt mens feelings)

She has been described as a former visiting fellow at the Centre for Global Development.  It’s not stated which organization by that name it is.  Most likely it’s an academic foundation connected with the University of Leeds, which seems to have a feminist angle.  However, the name sounds like some sort of globalist New World Order outfit, much like a different one in the USA.

This caused her to lose her job because – sad to say – the UK is no longer a free country.  She was deprived of her livelihood merely for stating a very basic fact about biology.  She referred it to an employment tribunal, but she lost the appeal because she had violated the tenets of Current Year politically correct ideology.  (Is it my imagination, or is “tribunal” pretty much a synonym for a kangaroo court?)  As the BBC described it:

Ms Forstater, who had worked as a tax expert at the think tank Center for Global Development, was not entitled to ignore the rights of a transgender person and the “enormous pain that can be caused by misgendering”, employment judge James Tayler said.

Ms Forstater was “absolutist” in her view, he concluded in a 26-page judgement.

“It is a core component of her belief that she will refer to a person by the sex she considered appropriate even if it violates their dignity and/or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment,” he continued.

“The approach is not worthy of respect in a democratic society.”

I could go into a long analysis of all the PC prose, but I’ll keep it brief:

• Translation:  “Your rights end where someone else’s feelings begin.”
• Compliance with the dictates of radical gender theory is now a condition of employment.
• This judge’s tyrannical attitude is what is not worthy of respect in a democratic society.
• All that said, what’s the matter with simply unsubscribing to someone’s Twitter channel if you don’t like what she says?

J.K. Rowling became the next heretic

The famous author of the Harry Potter series also found all that to be a little much.  She wrote the following, which caused her to draw heat too:

Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill.

Does any of that sound the least bit mean?  That’s a lot nicer than what I would’ve said.  Of course, the part that the SJWs object to is her suggesting that it’s wrong to deprive women of their livelihoods for expressing an opinion about a very basic biological principle.   (I’ll add that this opinion happens to be true.  Anyone who disagrees with sexual dimorphism can go argue with God or the forces of evolution – take your pick.)  Still, all it took was one tiny Narrative violation, and The Hive swarmed and stung someone who was on their side.

SJWs want unlimited freedom for them, or their preferred groups, to do anything they want.  Rowling didn’t even dispute that; her position essentially was “do whatever floats your boat”.  On the other hand, SJWs don’t believe in allowing freedom to do – or even say – things they don’t like.  They think people should be shut up by any means necessary if they express contradictory opinions.  That’s why Maya Forstater was run out of a job.  The prissy ruling by the employment tribunal enthusiastically endorsed this, with the backing of the law.  What is it with British judges these days?

Now Rowling is a thought criminal too merely for trying to defend freedom of expression.  (What kind of author would she be if she didn’t defend freedom of expression?)  Lately, she’s been called a TERF, a loaded term which means “trans exclusionary radical feminist“.  Actually, she only said that women should be free to express those opinions without losing their jobs.  Men should have freedom of expression too, but that should go without saying.

Why #IStandWithMaya too

This is merely one example of a very serious problem.  There’s nothing that SJWs wouldn’t do if they could get away with it.  Already in Britain, these delusional snowflakes beat up an old lady for being a TERF.  Unfortunately, that might be merely the beginning.  When fanatical leftists attain absolute power, they start putting people in gulags for disagreeing with them.  Of course, these crybullies are quite shocked and offended when rightists finally get sick of it and take off the gloves.

Note well, I do not like Rowling’s politics.  In her books, she took cheap shots at rightist British politicians, with little more nuance than a spaghetti western.  She also associated people who care about their ancestry with murderous snake-headed sorcerers, or very unpleasant people in thrall to them.  That’s quite subtle, now isn’t it?  Still, I’ll credit her for having talent and imagination, and I’ll simply hold my nose about the parts I don’t like.  I’m certainly not going to try to shout her down like those SJW crybullies, or say that her career is meaningless because she said one thing with which I disagreed.

Moreover, I do not like feminism.  Maya Forstater did once support a rather sinister sounding foundation.  However, she’s on the side of objective reality when she says that a man who believes he’s a woman is still a man.  Women – feminists or otherwise – have a lot at stake here.  I could go into considerable depth on these matters, but privacy and safety are the greatest concerns.

Despite what one might’ve heard, average transsexuals (if there is such a thing) are not people with some sort of ambiguity rooted in a biological abnormality.  Lately, that’s only a tiny fraction of them.  Most transsexuals now are men who have a sexual fetish of pretending to be lesbians.  I couldn’t fault any woman for not wanting to share a bathroom or locker room with these perverts.  Lately, it’s been promoted heavily, turned into a politically fashionable mass psychosis, and even pushed onto children.

So this puts me in a rather odd position.  Why would a Fascist like me care when the left starts to eat itself, like it has so many times before?  First of all, I’d prefer that everyone should be able to express their opinions without fearing for their jobs.  Things are better that way for everyone, right?  For another matter, the leftists themselves need to realize that this Social Justice Warrior stuff has gone much too far.  It’s in their best interests to clean house, get sensible again like normal liberals once used to be, and put the SJW genie back in the bottle before further damage is done.

What would happen if everything in Clown World was exactly the opposite?

We live in a pretty crazy world right now:  irresponsible politicians, degeneracy, coteries of sneaky plutocrats who think they deserve to run the world, the list goes on…  As an illustration of just how nutty things are, let’s imagine for a moment how the world would look if things became exactly the opposite overnight.

Note well, this doesn’t mean that I advocate exactly this.  My positions on some things are more moderate than my humorous take here.  Mainly this is to illustrate how absurd things are now.

#MeToo

New hashtags emerge, called #FalselyAccusedToo, #LiesForAttentionAndProfit, and #PoliceReportOrItDidn’tHappen.  Victims of bunny boilers speak out, encouraged by men filled with righteous rage.  False accusers are vilified and lose their jobs.  Drama queens who’ve merely spread idle gossip now live in fear that trivial trash-talking incidents from years ago will blow up in their faces.

Meanwhile:  Anyone who says “somebody patted my thigh” years ago either will be ignored, scoffed at, or told that the incident should’ve been regarded as an educational experience.

The gay agenda

Gays stop rubbing the public’s nose in their lifestyle, because they recognize that anyone who isn’t gay thinks it’s pretty gross when two men bang.  They resolve to keep bedroom stuff in the bedroom.  They make no demands to accommodate them.  Further, they deeply appreciate “breeders” who raise the next generation and keep society moving forward in time.

As for heterosexuals, they aren’t merely considered to be average citizens.  Instead, after coming out straight, they’re made to feel extraordinary and special and welcomed into the straight community.  Large corporations have heterosexual clubs and give them constant adulation.

Meanwhile:  For any gays who demand that the moral values of their small community should take precedence over those of everyone else, they’ll get shouted down and called “heterophobes”.

Mass migration

In every Western country, the major rightist party will begin a program to resettle incompatible migrants back to their place of origin.  The major leftist party claims that they object to this.  However, even when they’re in power, they never lift a finger to stop the flood of repatriation.  Meanwhile, the elites of the country will consider this resettlement to be a number one priority.

Meanwhile:  Anyone who argues for open borders will be denounced as an evil extremist.

The United Nations

The UN – “an irrelevant talking-shop for Third World dictators and their European apologists” – disbands after contritely recognizing its sordid history of corruption, worsening problems, and abject failure.  Its building is converted into low-rent housing.  The only vestige of internationalism is peace conferences and negotiations held by teleconference.  Getting rid of the corrupt den of cookie pushers saves billions a year.

Meanwhile:  Anyone who has ambitions to erode the sovereignty of nations, destroy diversity in the name of diversity, micromanage families, drag the USA into other people’s fights, and other hubristic plans will be told to piss up a rope.

Online censorship

Multibillion dollar corporations hire teams of lawyers to write terms of service that forbid expressions of cultural Marxism.  The legalese defines it in the vaguest way possible, giving their teams of right wing censors complete discretion to decide what does or doesn’t constitute cultural Marxism.  They write programs that ban their customers if they’re detected talking online about “intersectionality”, “toxic masculinity”, pro-globalist sentiments, etc. etc. etc.  According to the TOS, customers who file a lawsuit if they get deplatformed for being leftists will recover merely whatever their last annual service payment was, or if it was free, then at most a dollar.

Meanwhile:  Realizing their strategic error, leftists start supporting freedom of speech again like they used to do before the 1990s.  However, nobody can see their arguments because they’ve been thrown off of the Internet.

Democracy

Oh, shit!  The peasants got wise to me!

The people get sick of the “New World Order” types who pull strings behind the scenes for both political parties.  They demand reforms, and terrified politicians institute legislature to get big money influences out of politics.

Meanwhile:  Those guilty of subverting governments see mobs advancing toward their gated communities with torches and pitchforks.  They beg for the police to come and arrest them for treason.  At least they’ll have their day in court, rather than become lamppost ornaments by midnight.

“Watchdog” foundations

The John Birch Society receives hundreds of millions of dollars in donations.  Law enforcement agencies consult it as an authority on the Red Menace.  The John Birch Society begins compiling extensive lists of leftist groups and their members.  Even Greenpeace gets outed as a front group.  Anyone who was discovered to have worn a St. Che T-shirt back in college goes on the shit list too.

Meanwhile:  The ADL and $PLC are regarded as kooky extremists.  They don’t get a scrap of free publicity from the media.

Feminism

Feminist getting deprogrammed

Society is run with the premise that women and men should get along together.  Countless foundations, private organizations, media figures, and celebrities encourage girls and women to follow traditional lifestyles and act ladylike.  New “housewife studies” departments open up in universities across the country to encourage marital harmony, discourage retail therapy and running up the credit cards, explain the importance of having at least two children, instruct about cooking and cleaning, and give tips on staying physically fit after marriage.

Meanwhile:  Women’s studies departments get re-purposed.  Typical field trips for studying women include visits to the beach with binoculars and wet T-shirt contests.

Can Disney’s princess movies encourage Princess Complex?

What do little girls watch for entertainment?  Animated movies are perennial favorites.  The problem is that some of them are conveying the wrong messages.  They usually feature princesses, or those who end up marrying into royalty.  What’s the deal with that?

It’s obviously about wish fulfillment.  First of all, princesses are at the apex of society.  Not only are they rich and can afford anything they want, they’re part of the ruling dynasty.  Also, princesses can avoid any real work.  Their many servants are paid for by the royal treasury (and ultimately the taxpayers).  If they were peasant women instead, they’d have to help maintain the farm:  milk the cows, churn the butter, and all that.  Even if they were bourgeois housewives, that involves cooking, cleaning, and tending children.  If they want maids or nannies, the expense comes out of the household budget.

List of Disney princess movies

The following is a list of the movies where the official Disney princesses appear:

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937):  Princess raised by an evil stepmother who makes her do chores.  Revived from everlasting sleep by handsome prince.
• Cinderella (1950):  Orphan oppressed by evil stepmother who makes her do chores.  Her fairy godmother helps her win the heart of the handsome prince.
• Sleeping Beauty (1959):  Princess raised without knowledge of her royal status.  Revived from everlasting sleep by handsome prince.
• The Little Mermaid (1989):  Undersea princess overcomes plot of scheming aunt and wins the heart of handsome prince.
• Beauty and the Beast (1991):  Bourgeois feminist from medieval France removes curse by the power of true love, beast becomes handsome prince cured of psychological problems.
• Aladdin (1992):  Arab princess shares enchanted adventure with handsome rogue.
• Pocahontas (1995):  Indian princess meets handsome British officer and takes much artistic license with history.
• Mulan (1998):  Medieval Chinese feminist enlists in drag and saves her country from Huns.  In the sequel, she marries former commanding officer.
• The Princess and the Frog (2009):  Waitress undergoes amphibian adventure, marries handsome prince.
• Tangled (2010):  Princess raised without knowledge of her royal status by oppressive witch, meets handsome rogue.
• Brave (2012):  Feminist princess defies tradition and refuses betrothal.  Princess uses magic to manipulate mother, with unexpected results.  Princess gets her way, and will get to pick which prince she wants to marry, and when.
• Moana (2016):  South Seas princess recovers magical artifact.

So we have some common themes here.  Excepting the last two, all end up with a highly desirable guy in the end.  Most of the heroines are princesses, or the daughters of tribal chiefs in societies that don’t have a national monarchy.  Some others ascend to royalty through marriage.  Mulan is the only exception, merely getting an officer of high standing.  The princesses who end up with handsome rogues, instead of princes, still retain their royal status.  Common labor is equated with oppression, especially domestic chores.

In the feminist-influenced films, the heroines get to challenge long-standing customs.  In the end, they overcome resistance and have everything their way.  The anachronistic feminists (butch in a couple of cases) don’t incur lasting consequences to their social standing.  Neither are there any other long-term ill effects on their lives for defying tradition.

It gets worse

Beauty and the Beast is the most insidious of the princess movies.  Sure, “love conquers all” is a nice-sounding message.  Still, what happens if you try to run the script in real life?  If, for example, someone tries to use true love to turn an unemployed alcoholic into a handsome prince, the usual result is not a magical adventure.  Instead, that means escaping to the women’s shelter after one too many black eyes.  It’s the same problem as Wuthering Heights, another notorious item of Stockholm Syndrome fiction.

Brave is another notable offender, though for different and more complex reasons.  It’s the first princess movie to question the institution of marriage; whereas the others merely suffered from instilling unrealistic expectations.  All of the heroine’s suitors looked like dorks, which surely was meant to reinforce the message the screenwriters were intending to make.  That’s the difference between adolescent boys and girls.  The girls quickly will blossom into their peak maidenly beauty.  At the time, boys look pretty dorky for the next few years, before they slowly start to look manly.

Sure, the plot will strike a chord:  “Poor Merida – pressured into getting married early, and she doesn’t even get to pick the guy!”  Indeed, that much is understandable.  Still, strange results are to be expected if one applies modern sensibilities to medieval settings.  (It’s sort of like the “Oh shit!” moment when you realize that your favorite ancient philosopher or theologian didn’t object to slavery.)  In the real world, dynastic marriages for royal families were an essential means to hold alliances together.  This carried on up until monarchy became obsolete, but throwing tradition out the window would’ve been impossible before then.  Dynastic marriage was the one duty expected of princesses, a tradeoff for having the most pampered and carefree existence of anyone in the realm.

The notion of arranged marriages seems very out of step in modern times, unless you’re from India where this is the norm.  (Americans have a divorce rate ten times higher than they do.  Maybe they know something we don’t?)  Still, that’s how things rolled in Europe too back in the day, and it worked pretty well for them.  It wasn’t until the Renaissance that people started getting married for love.  Moreover, it wasn’t until the Sexual Revolution that young women were able to ride the Cock Carousel without social penalty.  Does all that screwing around help to test for long-term compatibility – maximal choices, lots of data points, “try before you buy”?  Once again, our divorce rate speaks volumes.

Anyway, the butch princess gets everything her way in the end, but things could’ve gone a lot worse.  Merida’s refusal to follow customs threatened to disrupt the fragile peace with the neighboring tribes.  At no point did she seem to care that a lot of people might get killed because of that.  Everything was all about her!  (This is one of the things that’s wrong with feminism, of course.)  Here’s how I would’ve handled the plot if I’d been the screenwriter.

“Okay, so you don’t want to do the one thing that’s expected of you as a princess.  That’s totally cool; you can be a peasant instead.  I’ll give you a churn, spinning wheel, loom, washtub, broom, and a stove to help you get started.  If that’s too girly for your tastes, I can get you an anvil, hammer, and furnace.”

What messages do princess movies convey to girls?

Those films seem like pretty wholesome fare.  Actually, they certainly are, if compared to former Mouseketeers turned pop divas getting lewd on stage.  Even so, the princess movies do contain some rather faulty underlying messages.  Little girls are the main target audience.  One needn’t be Sigmund Freud – or his nephew, the advertising pioneer and propagandist Edward Bernays – to understand the imprinting effect of messages like this delivered at an early age.

When adult women read a romance novel, or trash like 50 Shades of Grey, they should be able to realize that the book is escapist wish fulfillment.  Not every potential boyfriend will be a billionaire who looks like an underwear model and has a case of narcissistic personality disorder that the ladies find so appealing.  They should understand that.  However, “should” and five bucks will get you a cheeseburger.  Chick porn like that, along with chick flicks – what they watch after they’re too old for princess movies – can contribute to unrealistic expectations.  It’s much like what visual porn does to guys.

It’s worse when messages that might lead to unrealistic expectations are aimed at little girls.  The target audience is at the age where they still believe in the Easter Bunny, or not far beyond that.  Little kids don’t have much of a bullshit filter.  Obviously the girls are meant to identify with the protagonists as role models, imagining that things will be like that when they too are teenagers.  At a young age, they might internalize messages like this:

• You’re a princess by birthright.  If your parents aren’t royalty, maybe they’re not your real parents and are oppressing you.
• Even if you’re definitely a commoner, social climbing via marriage is a great way to fix that problem and attain princess status.
• All girls deserve a rich guy so they can be spoiled perpetually, whether or not they bring much to the table themselves.  Of course, he must be good looking too.
• If you choose a handsome rogue instead, that’s empowerment.  No bad consequences will come to you for running with criminals.
• True love can do anything, including fixing someone else’s personality defects.
• Labor is definitely beneath you, especially chores like washing dishes.  That’s for servants.
• It’s always right to defy any social standards you don’t like.  Gender roles especially have no reason to exist.  Do whatever you consider personally rewarding; that will never negatively affect your personal outcome.
• In short, you deserve nothing in life other than the very best.  Since you’re not a peasant, hardships are always temporary and can be overcome with a cool adventure.
• You always can count on the assistance of talking animals, supernatural beings like fairy godmothers, noble family members you didn’t realize you had, and handsome princes willing to fight to the death for you.

What are the effects on boys who watch this stuff?

Boys will get some different messages:

• Girls will like you, as long as you’re a handsome prince, or a handsome rogue.  (There is some truth in this.)
• You must do anything for the spoiled princess, including risking your life.
• Opting out of gender roles – like the one above – isn’t in the script for you.
• The more that you do for girls, the more they’ll appreciate you in the end.  (And I have a bridge for sale in Brooklyn.)

It’s no wonder why boys prefer action and adventure movies over princess movies, now isn’t it?  Fortunately, the former usually have better character development.

What’s the matter with this?

Simply put, the world does not work this way.  Here are some facts contrary to what little girls learn from these movies.  These are harsh, but the truth hurts.

• Most people are ordinary commoners, fairly average.  (Even those who are exceptional need to do more than have an adventure and rest on their laurels.)
• Average men indeed are good enough for average women.  Shocking, isn’t it?
• Someone who refuses to settle for anyone other than a millionaire or a celebrity is a lazy gold digger.  Instead of getting a handsome prince, those with impossible standards probably will get pumped and dumped a lot, and later in life end up all alone and very disappointed.
• Rich guys sometimes have bald spots or pot bellies or might be less than six feet tall.  (Who knew, right?)  Some have short tempers or big egos, especially the trust fund kids.  Those who’ve made their own money usually have to work very long hours.
• Women who chase criminals are gun molls.  They certainly don’t live happily ever after.
• True love is great, but it doesn’t do everything, and it certainly can’t cure someone else’s mental problems, addictions, atrocious behavior, etc.
• Being lazy is not a virtue.  Unless you can afford a maid, you’d better learn how to clean up your own place, or you’ll be the next star on Hoarders.
• Social standards usually exist for a reason.  Traditions become traditions because they work.  Ignore this at your peril.
• Fairy godmothers don’t exist.  (Bruce Jenner doesn’t count.)

What is Princess Complex?

If the fantasy / wish fulfillment concept of how the world works isn’t mitigated by realism by the time they’re adults, a condition known as Princess Complex will develop.  Urban Dictionary defines this term as:

An attitude fed to women by the media and other females that bestows upon them illusions of superiority and selfishness. Also brought on to many attractive females over time by means of many males who have ventured into the friend zone by catering to the respective female’s every beck and call.

Another defines this as:

As children girls are told stories about knights who save princesses and exist to serve them. They internalize these stories and imagine themselves as princesses. As they grow older they expect every single man they are involved with to play the part of the prince, and many men enable this delusion. This is a culturally enforced narcissistic delusion, that causes women to expect praise and special favors. This will only end when men raise up and hand women a dose of reality. Stop paying for her dates, and stop telling her she’s special.

A related complex is Feminist Entitlement:

Feminist Entitlement is the conviction that women are owed something by the virtue of their gender.  It is the belief structure that tells women they deserve to have their whims catered to both culturally and interpersonally.  One of the most harmful aspects of Feminist Entitlement is the belief that feminists have a right to use and view women both as tools and victims.

Wrapping things up, you need to keep track of what your kids are watching.  Too many of the wrong messages might encourage your little ones to be spoiled brats who think the universe rotates around their egos.  Again, these movies aren’t as poisonous as some of the stuff on the idiot box lately.  Still, if they do watch these films – or others like them – it’s a good idea to have a discussion with them to explain that not everyone gets to be a princess.

Men’s Health encourages men to explore bisexuality

Men’s Health has released what might be one of their most unintentionally funny articles ever, “So You’re Feeling a Little Bicurious. We’re Here to Help!”  It begins:

After years of wondering if I could ever be intimate with another man, I decided to hook up with a dude my freshman year of college.

Looks like he demonstrated that he was capable of doing so.  Proof of concept, right?  Well, there’s a lot more to the article than that, of course.

The problem was that he was so drunk that he threw up during the hookup.  What a way to kill the mood!  One would think that would’ve scared both of them straight, but apparently not!  The only good news is that he’s a guy; if he’d been a chick, the other dude would’ve had to worry about getting a false rape accusation.  If you drive drunk, you’re responsible for your actions; if you hook up drunk, it’s completely different as long as you’re female.

The article offers helpful tips for guys who want to do what he did – presumably without relying as much on Dutch courage.  One thing that’s oddly missing is a clear warning that you shouldn’t drink ’till you spew during a hot date.  This is the closest the article comes to that:

After the experience, I could not tell you if I was gay or bi. Overall, the experience was “meh,” like any really sloppy, drunken hookup regardless of gender.

Pro tip:  If you’re a dude and you’re turned on by both dudes and chicks, you’re bisexual.  If you’re only turned on by dudes, you’re gay.  If you know the difference between teal and aqua, you have an unusual fascination for gladiator movies, or can suck the chrome off of a trailer hitch, then you’re probably fruity to one degree or another.  This stuff isn’t rocket science.

Anyway, here’s the highlights of rest of the advice.

1. Start with porn.

Actually, starting with porn is excellent advice if you no longer want to be a boring old straight guy.  If you’re jerkin’ the gherkin until it turns blue, you might be doing strange things to your arousal template.  There are numerous anecdotal accounts about straight porn addicts starting to look at gay stuff after the regular beat-off material loses its sparkle.  Heck there are far weirder things too – tentacle porn makes giving another guy a BJ seem pretty tame.  This is a small part of the tolerance phenomenon, which Nofap describes here:

In a pornography addiction, tolerance seems to build when a user needs to look at more porn, more novel porn, more intense porn, or a combination of these in order to satisfy themselves. This is where pornography addiction gets dangerous.

If an addict builds up a tolerance to porn, he may need it more abundantly. Just spending 10 minutes cruising porn sites may not be enough, and he will begin spending more and more time with porn until it begins cutting into his career or family life.

Or he may need porn that is progressively more novel, searching for videos with actresses and sexual acts he’s never before seen. Many porn addicts on NoFap report shock when they realize that a certain kink or fetish they once found stomach-turning is now the only thing that can get them off. The addictive quest for novelty in porn has lead some porn addicts to search for extreme, taboo and even illegal material.

So go ahead and choke that chicken for hours on end, day after day, and eventually you’ll be up for banging anything!  That is, if you can still get it up after all that overuse, but that’s another porn problem entirely.

2. Move to apps and chat rooms.

Men’s Health recommends:

It allows you the opportunity to engage with other men sexually without doing anything IRL. (Grindr and Scruff are two good apps to use.)

Men’s Health really knows what’s good for men, so what the hell – I signed up for Grindr.  Woo hoo!  It’s going to be BJ City here!  I can’t wait to pack some fudge too!  I’m sure my girlfriends will be a little surprised when I switch to “the love that dare not speak its name”, but that’s their problem to deal with!  My GRINDR app just sent me another invite for an Oscars party, how about that!  Damn, why didn’t I get results like this when I was trying to find chicks on OKCupid?

Anyway, the article doesn’t say too much about safe sex and – again – these guys really know what they’re talking about and what’s good for men.  Since they didn’t mention anything about that, I guess we don’t have to worry about condoms these days, right?

3. Have a bisexual MMF threesome.

If after watching some bi/gay porn and talking to some dudes on apps/chat rooms, you’re thinking to yourself, alright, I think I could potentially be into this, it might be time to consider having a threesome with a woman and another man.

Great idea!  I’ll head right over to the nearby biker bar and try the following pickup line:  “I’ll bet you’re bi too.  How about we tag-team your girlfriend?”  For those who’ve watched enough porn by now to think that’s an awesome idea, Men’s Health has a helpful article linked below called “I Can’t Stop Having Devil’s Threesomes”.

4. Work on reducing internalized shame.

Exploring bi-curiosity isn’t just getting out there and doing it with another guy. “It’s important for men to understand that we live in sex-phobic and homophobic culture that helps shape what we see as possible for ourselves and our desires,” says Jor-El.

Is Jor-El from the planet Krypton or something?  Being gay wasn’t such a huge big deal by the 1970s.  It was still somewhat controversial, but far less so by the 1990s.  As for now, being gay means you’re special and unique, so start watching more gay porn and sign up for gay hookup apps!

As for those who say that American culture is sex-negative, have they seen any movies lately, or turned on the radio or TV?  The only places you can’t “let it all hang out” are at work or at church.

5. Educate yourself.

Instead of discussing how we come to form our sexual identity, some sex-ed classes never get beyond condoms on cucumbers—or teach abstinence-only curriculum.

Problem? What problem?

6. Recognize you might not have a big “aha” moment.

I thought I was going to have this big “aha” moment. I’d kiss his lips and immediately realize, “Woah… I’m gay. I’ve never felt like this when I’ve been with women.” Or it would become crystal clear I definitely wasn’t into men. Neither happened. In fact, I came to the conclusion after the experience that I was straight, and it took me another five years of hooking up with men to embrace the fact that I am bisexual.

He banged dudes for five years before he figured out he was bi?  I’d say that if you go back for seconds, that’s a pretty good proof of concept that you’re at least a switch hitter.

7. Talk to a therapist.

“With a LGBTQ+ affirming therapist, you can talk through aspects of your sexuality that seem daunting or frightening to deal with on your own,” Joe-El says.

“Doc, I think I might be gay.”
“Are you turned on by men?”
“Yeah.”
“Yes, you’re queer.  That’ll be $90 please.”

8. You can try it, not like it, and you’re still straight.

You fear that rumors surrounding your sexuality will haunt you for the rest of your life, but here’s the truth about experimenting: If you come to the conclusion after hooking up with a guy that you’re straight, then you are just as straight as a dude who’s never experimented. One sexual act does not define your entire identity. Period.

You know what?  On second thought, I’ve decided that I’m going to ignore what Men’s Health is telling me to do.  Experimenting with homosexuality sounds like it inherently sucks and is a pain in the ass.  I think I’ll just delete my GRINDR account and go back to watching gladiator movies.

If political parties were sodas

Let’s pretend that political parties were brands of soda.  The following is just a funny thought experiment and doesn’t imply actual views held by specific soda manufacturers.  Neither is it an accurate description of the flavors of their products.  That said, let’s begin!

In the USA, Coke and Pepsi have been around well over a century, and have been in fierce competition for market share.  They say they’re very different, but as soon as the soda goes in the glass, it’s obvious that they taste nearly the same.  As it happens, the majority shareholders who fund the operations of Coca-Cola are also the majority shareholders in Pepsi.  Coincidence?

They do have a few competitors, like RC, Red Bull, and Moxie, but they never really get anywhere.  RC does the best of these “Third Soda” brands.  They say they’re closest to the soda made back in the old days, but their flavor is boring and seems watered down.  Red Bull has a powerful flavor but tastes weird and is bad for you in large doses.  Red Bull fans want it to be the official soda sanctioned by the government, and nobody will be allowed to drink other brands.  Moxie has a powerful flavor too, very sharp and clear.  It takes some getting used to at first, but then it turns out that they’re everything the other brands are not.  Coke and Pepsi fear Moxie more than each other.

For some odd reason, with each decade, Pepsi tastes a little more like Red Bull.  Those two companies always have been fairly friendly.  Also oddly, Coke always tastes like last decade’s Pepsi.  That doesn’t make Pepsi drinkers want to switch to Coke; they keep on drinking Pepsi like they always did.  Seventy years ago, Coke used to taste like a milder version of Moxie.  Then former Pepsi executives started working for Coca-Cola, eventually becoming the majority on the Board of Directors about thirty years ago.

When Moxie fans point out that the leading sodas have unhealthy ingredients, everyone else tries to shout them down.  When RC fans say the same things about other brands, nobody pays any attention.  Moxie fans have lively debates about whether or not they should even display their own brand’s emblem.  Red Bull fans don’t have that problem, luckily for them.  Their brand is heavily promoted to college students, and it’s hard to find a university that doesn’t have Red Bull monopoly on campus.

Other countries have similar arrangements.  Britain has a “three soda system”, in contrast to the USA’s “two soda system”.  RC is about as popular as Coke and Pepsi, but there, it tastes little different from the others.  They’re all equally unhealthy too.  In Germany, technically you’re not allowed to have Red Bull, so they just renamed it Pink Bull and nobody cares otherwise.  You’re definitely not allowed to have Moxie, and you can get thrown in jail if you say that things were better back when Moxie had a soda monopoly.  Russia used to have a Red Bull monopoly for a long time, but their head honcho owns Shasta, so Shasta it is.

As for the USA’s head honcho, he was from Coca-Cola.  Very strangely, most of the top Coca-Cola executives tried their utmost to sabotage him.  Pepsi executives don’t like him any better, of course.  They work together to make sure he never can make changes to the flavor.  Pepsi further accuses him of being a secret agent, though they can’t seem to figure out if it’s for Moxie or for Shasta.