Junk

[Prometheus]

There are a lot of problems these days that have been growing for decades, whether it's "Climate Change" or race relations and I think a lot of it comes down to perceptions. As I pointed out in my CC rant, if everyone were just to look at it as common pollution that we can handle through individual action far better than government action then the problem might get stalled long enough to dealt with properly and cheaply, but many have built up CC so much in their minds that they'll never be able to let go of their fears of catastrophe and devastation long enough to ditch driving to the next protest so they can save up for an EV.

Something similar, I think, is pervading our society at a much more base level: loneliness. Of all the things people "identify" as these days, "lonely" is at the top. 3 out of 5 Americans (on average) say they are lonely with the numbers getting higher the younger you go. Gen Z almost couldn't be lonelier.

Part of it is that Gen Z and their slightly older partners is crime, the Millennials, pretty much live their social lives online and haven't really mastered the art of making positive relationships IRL. These are people who actually text their dinner partners who are sitting 3 feet away. These are people who spend a night out with a significant other by taking pictures of their food and watching their phones for "likes" and "retweets."

And these are the generations that took sexual liberation up a notch with "hookup culture." For those not in the know, this is what we used to call, "casual sex." We older generations engaged in casual sex from time-to-time, but we had a fairly low opinion of those who did it all the time. These days, a young man might bump into a young woman at a party, chat for a moment, go off to a secluded area for quickie then come back to the party and not speak again for the rest of the night.

I'm Gen X who grew up in the "me, me, me 80's" and I'm not sure that we even got that crazy. Hell. I'm not sure the hippie Boomers got that wild without a lot of chemical ingestion.

So I started wondering how people could get to the point of sleeping around so casually and not realize that it was part and parcel of their loneliness and I kept coming back to the word, "junk." The definition of "junk" is "anything that is regarded as worthless, meaningless, or contemptible; trash."

This is the word that Millennials and Zoomers use to talk about their genitals. Imagine that. The people who regard their most intimate body parts as "junk" are seemingly incapable of forming positive relationships. They are also the groups with the highest instances of body and gender dysmorphic disorders. Quelle surprise.

They are also the groups most likely to give rise to a mass shooter. Of course they are. They have body issues so they don't form positive relationships, and actively seek to shame others every time they feel shame in themselves... usually when someone else points out a truth to them such as, "Being overweight isn't healthy." That's going to create some fucked up folk who can't cope with the real world... who haven't grown into adulthood.

And it all seems to hinge on this word, "junk," this idea that their body IS worthless, meaningless, and contemptible. If you feel that way about your body, I can only imagine the darkness you feel in your hearts, minds, and souls.

And that brings us to the notion of "body positivity" which espouses the core notion that everyone should be nice to you even though you won't do a damn thing to make yourself likeable. Notice that I said, "likeable" not "beautiful" or "attractive," because - let's face it - how can you like a person that goes around whining all day but never takes the steps needed to make their lives better? Instead of hitting the gym and getting healthy, you scream, "LOVE ME FOR WHO I AM!!!" Sorry, but who you are is a bitter child that I'm tired of listening to especially when you blame me for your problems which I couldn't possibly have anything to do with.

If you were genuinely happy with who you are, you wouldn't have to shout it from the rooftops and demand attention. You'd just be you and have lots of time and energy to form positive relationships with more people, many of whom will love you for who you are rather than who you demand to be seen as.

But the first thing you need to do is stop calling your intimate parts, "junk" and start treating them with the respect they are due. Amazingly enough, that will also be the amount of respect that you start getting from those around you. Remember, all the guys wanted to bed the "easy girl" but they never respected her and they never spent more time with her than they had to, and they certainly didn't marry her... unless they knocked her up.

It seems to me that true body positivity starts with NOT regarding your body as contemptible. When you do, others will too. It's human nature.

/Friday Morning Rant