2023-05-10 — Canceled?

Let’s see, yesterday…

First car of the day was a 2011 Toyota RAV4 that needed a wheel bearing replaced. Lots of college students are getting their cars fixed right now because school is getting out, and they are heading home to their states of origin. So that means lots of cars to fix, and lots of phone calls from concerned parents.

Anyway, I had a really good conversation with the young lady whose car I was fixing. She’s an engineering student who wants to go on to law school.

Though it’s a little dangerous in today’s climate, I decided to ask her about what it’s like being a college student these days, with AI starting to become a major player in daily life, as well as the current political and social climate and issues. We had a super great conversation, and I learned a decent amount about what it’s like to be a college student, at least from one college student’s perspective.

She talked about how it’s pretty much completely taboo nowadays to actually say what you actually feel and believe politically and socially. She said If anybody asks questions on topics that are sensitive and controversial, the answer that everyone pretty much gives is “you do you.”

She said actually speaking your opinions is super dangerous, and you risk getting ‘canceled.”

Very interesting conversation. Very interesting indeed.

I guess I forgot to mention that I had a similar conversation with the gentleman from Nigeria. I took the chance of asking some questions that were dangerous in today’s political climate, and I was interested by his comments. He mentioned that he had migrated his political beliefs from one side of the aisle to the other, and had been basically disowned by his family and friends because of it. That’s not the first time that I’ve heard that.

It’s funny, and it’s also sad, that because somebody might have a particular culture or color of skin, they are expected to follow a particular political leaning.

When mitt Romney ran for president, I think there are a lot of people who might have thought that I would have voted for him because he was Mormon, but not a chance. It was clear to me that though he claimed to espouse the principles that were important to me, his actions and his policies demonstrated a lack of standing on the principles he claimed to espouse.

You don’t get my vote because you’re my religion. You don’t get my vote because you’re the same color of skin. You get my vote because of the values and principles that you hold and stick by, come hell or high water.

Anyway, I know the feeling of being worried about being canceled. I hold back plenty of times even on my blog here sometimes because I’m worried about being canceled. There’s also the fact that I haven’t thought through some of the current issues in enough depth to know how I actually feel 100%.

Anyway, that was the first job with the young lady college student.

It was also interesting because just at the moment I was finishing up the job after having had that conversation, I went in to the store to grab something that I needed, and I ran into somebody who was born biologically a man but identifies as a woman. Super nice person. I had been doing business with that person for a very long time without realizing the gender identity that was held, and without thinking about it, I said “thank you, sir!” as I was walking out the door.

I realized it just as the words came out of my mouth, and I stumbled trying to figure out what to do as I was already walking out the door. I had used the term sir with that person, and the word brother and all sorts of other words because I didn’t know the held gender identity.

I haven’t done enough research to feel confident in my views in that particular area of current contention socially and politically. I have some opinions that I’m absolutely sure about, others that I’m not so sure about, and I need more information to feel comfortable. I appreciate the research that is being done by some of the countries in Europe. It’s very interesting to me how cultures can be sewing different in this day and age. US culture and how they approach things like this is so much different than European culture. And I probably can’t even say European culture, because I know they differ from area to area there as well. Anyway, some of the research over there into transgender stuff is really important I think, and I need to learn more about it.

Anyway, car number two was a 2003 Infiniti G35. He had said that it had a misfire on cylinder 5, and he was thinking he was wanting spark plugs and coils replaced.

Well, after finding the engine extremely low on oil, and topping it off at least to the point that it was safe to start, I tried to start it, but it wouldn’t start. It made an awful metal on metal racket, and after trying to figure out why it wouldn’t start for a while, I finally gave up. But before leaving, I checked the oil again, and all of my efforts to crank the engine overhead stirred up the oil and shown that it was full of metal. 😕

So he needs a new engine. 😕

The last car was a 2012 Nissan Armada that she said made sounds that sounded like a clown horn every time she went over a bump. She also said it was shaking at speed. So I looked and looked and looked and looked and looked, and I couldn’t find anything, and I took it on an extended test drive for like 40 minutes or so in order to find some place with speed bumps.

But no matter what I did, I couldn’t get any of this issue she was concerned about to present themselves. I did however diagnose the car is needing rear brakes, so it wasn’t a total loss for her. 🙃

I finished up the day about 4:30 just as the storm rolled in and the rain started pouring down.

Once home, I spend a little while cleaning up my room. Still have a crap ton of work left to do there, and then I mostly just chilled the rest of the day. I enjoyed watching the rain for little while, and I spent way too much time on YouTube. Apparently I’ve switched TV and movies for YouTube. 😅

Certainly what I watch on YouTube is a heck of a lot more productive generally, as I’m off in times learning, but still, not how I want to be spending my time. Just a bit of an escape from life.

Speaking of which, I’m still struggling a lot. I’m better than I have been sometimes, but I’m still struggling a lot other times. Thoughts of suicide are pretty much a daily occurrence, though most of the time they’re just bleeding thoughts that come in and go out fairly quickly. But it’s there. Rough times.

Definitely better than I was a week ago or so, but still definitely not doing well at all.

Trying to make some progress.

🤞

Lift the World

~ stephen