This irritates me more than anything. I’ll say I’m American or from America and people will look at me like I’m speaking Latin. They’ll then say “you mean the United States…? America is a continent.” Or “North American or South American?” Even though they know well I mean the United States.

Everyone in the world knows I mean the United States when I say America. It’s literally the only country with America in the name, so it’s perfectly reasonable to shorten it with “America” and it causing literally 0 confusion. I doubt it even causes confusion at all, it’s just someone trying to be on a high horse of pretentious attitude.

I’ve even seen someone say “USAian” instead of “American” because they’re so stubborn to even use American since it would go against them saying “well, actually America is a continent 🤓☝️”

Stop being stubborn. It’s okay to say America. It’s okay to call us Americans.

I'm just laughing it off at this moment. Today, I received a birthday letter from my employer that came with a Timmies gift card. I opened it, read the letter, and said to myself "ok, cool". I checked the balance, and there I just couldn't believe my eyes. The card only holds five freakin dollars ($5), like is this some kind of an April fool's joke, or are we in poverty?

I have worked in this manufacturing company for over 5 years and am handling an account that brings 60% of the revenue. Today is August 31, and my birthday is not even until 2 weeks in September. This is just unbelievable, lol. This can't even justify the stress and frustration I encounter daily.

Anyway, I'm grateful for getting gifts and these sorts of gestures, but just can't get my head around about the $5.

Thanks for hearing my story. :)

So yeah, the Eisenhower-Kennedy decade was pretty great. The rich were properly taxed, the middle class ballooned and was doing great, optimism reigned. The John-Birch Society hated the civil rights movement and tried to stir up the red-scare and the KKK had it’s last gasps. Even so, life was pretty good, mostly with some exception.

Then Kennedy was killed and the CIA/Military got its opening into and massively failed in Vietnam. The USA era from 1975 to 2001 was relatively bucolic by comparison to the domestic turmoil coincident with the Vietnam war. Lots of shit was going down in Latin America and mostly ignored.

The USA struggled with a bad economy, high inflation. The US embassy seizure in Iran was big news and cost Carter a second term. Reagan kept his CIA adventures mostly under the radar and under the apathy of the general public. Nixon’s neo-cons were unleashed when Saddam invaded Kuwait, the US and allies landed troops in Saudi Arabia. Saddam was mostly subdued, Powell and Schwarzkopf became heroes and the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal established. Under the covers, Al Qaeda’s grievances with the defilement of Saudi soil by infidel troops simmered. Clinton had his big bombing in Serbia to cover his peccadillos instead of figuring out a diplomatic path. His administration bolstered Al Qaeda in the Balkans while chasing bin Laden in Africa/MENA.

The neocons got their big break in 2001 at 911 and it’s been a shitshow ever since. The CIA is firmly in control again. The military industrial complex rules the uniparty, massive deficit spending feeds the Trump-Epstein billionaire class and drops crumbs upon the masses.

Everything is horrrible or the worst on that channel. is there one thing that isn't bad?

Frm an south asian country,and everyone around me been migrating which i love for them but today I was told that the transformative effect migration gives you cant be attained from anything else.And i jst wanna yell at that idea,migrating is such an expensive thing (but sometimes I get its allso for survival i get that) and transformation is about seeing ,knowing and adapting,the transformative effect is insulated by lack of curiosity or self introspection (which is consider as main contributors for growth arc).Plus I dong wanna face the brutality of the world lemme jst be

It's just super annoying when there's a big thing happening and you know it's gonna do well, like a tv event, game, movie etc. And it's gonna impress people how big it is but then there's people who don't understand it or just make up ridiculous numbers that aren't possible at all and I have to be like "no bro, actually that doesn't make sense" while initially wanting to be hyped as well, any of you know that?

I've been doing a hobby and getting better at it. People that I don't know very well, who haven't mentored me, or aren't really related to me keep saying they're proud of me. It's like they think I'm a lot younger than I am (30sF) and also that they've had a part in accomplishing what I've done. I feel a bit infantilized with the statement. That's something that parents or mentors usually tell their kids in my mind. A lot of these folks are more like acquaintances than friends, so they don't really have a thing to share in these accomplishments. They don't really know me. Pride shows that you are a part of it somehow - like school pride, national pride, family pride, company pride.

When someone I don't really know who doesn't have a connection to me says that they're proud of me, it seems more intimate than it should. I I'd rather folks say, "I'm happy for you" or "Good job" or something. Am I taking this too seriously? I'll just brush it off at this point, not going to correct anyone, but I do find it odd. Any way to deal with this?

My dad is a narcissist, and everyone close and around him knows it, he has to have his way or hes yelling and throwing a fit like a child. hes a 48 year old man that has been told for the past what 10 years that he looks more like hes 20 years old and has used that as a pass to act like hes 10, he quickly shifts from being a "dad" to making me be the older and bigger person then he is and im just so sick of it its the most irritating thing in the world.

He takes alot of stuff out on me and disguises insults as jokes, hes constantly joking about things like my weight (never even been past 120 pounds not that it even matters), my style and honestly everything i like, he'll come into a room act a little intrested in what your doing and in the exact same breath make a joke insulting you on it, hes been doing this shit since i've had contiousness. I feel like I've been pushed so hard into being small by him that i feel like nothing all the time and it just fucking sucks.

Sometimes im his favorite person and his bestfriend and other times I dont get to have opinions or beliefs of my own or just anything that doesnt A line with exactly what he thinks, for years i genuinely thought maybe it was something i've done or something i had been doing, when i was younger I'd do absolutely anything to be on his goodside weather it was making fun of myself or honestly throwing anybody else under the bus, sometimes i still catch myself wanting his approval and that upsets me.

One of the worst things about it is the way he treats other people my age or people younger then me, he'll praise these people hes never even met over me any day, he jumps at the chance to be seen as some type of uncle or even a father figure for all these other people but not me? I just dont understand it.

I turned 18 last month and I honestly just feel so lost, Its just so many things maybe im blaming him but it feels like hes played such a big role in me hating myself, Its always been be the best or your the worst and Im not really the best at anything. I dont think i've ever felt genuinely proud of anything i've ever done, graduating high school or just any big milestone for me in general. I feel like I cant do anything right or anything worth while and I wish he got out of my head once and awhile. Im just so angry at it all.

Sorry if this isnt really spaced out or written well

Like why does my spud need a plastic poncho to leave the grocery store when he’s already got his own natural gear? And why has Aldi’s and Trade Joe’s submitted to accepting more plastic packaging? I used to buy these chocolate wafers in a tin can. I’d open the tin can and get the wafer but now I have to bypass a plastic encasing just to get to the wafer - tin, plastic and then wafer.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcoAXQ0T_Ua/?igsi=MXZmazZzZ2VnMDR0aQ==

Not necessarily a direct question, more of an outcry, lol.

I could go into year-long detail about the years of construction next door, about how my municipality hasn't updated their noise bylaws since 1927, how 85db by law are considered "acceptable", but that would probably go beyond something entertaining for anyone here.

So I'll make it more general. I'm an immigrant from Europe with sensory processing disorder. Because I've been struggling with noise input all my life, I've adapted quite well to navigating loud environments. I've got my noise cancels, my plugs, my emergency escape plans, you name it.

Recently, my neighborhood has become the new development zone of the town. So, my home has stopped being an escape when it comes to noise, so the overstimulation has become an every day issue. I've always known that NA tends to be noisier than Europe, but this has really made me notice recently that N.A. is SO DAMN LOUD all of the time!

Yes, I'm combining the States and Canada here on purpose. No offense, they're the exact same on that level.

No laws to make construction quieter. No expectations of muffling large machinery. The trucks?? Like can someone tell me why your cargo trucks literally SCREAM up the hill? Why, if it's a Mercedes motor like the ones I grew up with, is it so much louder??

And everything BEEPS! EVERYTHING! The elevator beeps at every floor. Every traffic light beeps (I can forgive that cause it's accommodation for blind people, just adding this to the list cause it adds to the noise regardless). Every vehicle beeps with every button press and every reverse setting. Every machine announces itself with some high pitched grating sound. Every other engine sounds like a metal rock band, and when the EVs were finally quiet, they added a whirring spaceship sound.

The other day I tried to go to a golf club for some reprieve, mistakenly thinking it might be more quiet there? Jokes on me, cause even the damn golf cards make a high-pitched screeching sound when they park!

I understand and I've been told/have researched numerous times about things like protection laws (eg. reverse beeping prevents accidents). But honestly? I don't buy that being the main reason.

We have the same types of large construction, of vehicles, of elevators, where I'm from. And it's not a constant whirlwind of constant noise. Plus, there's actually protection for people's quality of life. If your apartment is unlivable because of construction, you have the right to a rent reduction. Here? If I tell my landlord the living conditions are unacceptable, they'll smugly smirk and tell me "to just move", knowing exactly that in today's economy no one can "just move" whenever they feel like it.

People are loud here too. But honestly, that doesn't exactly bother me specifically, because people from my home are often repressed and don't express emotions well. So I don't mind the overall more open and outward presentation of NA people. But it then does get annoying when you can't even enjoy a quiet cafe, because a group of girlies is screeching in my ear from the side. So again, not generally a problem, but it points to a certain mentality, no?

Don't you guys ever get tired of this? Or are you just used to it because you grew up with it? Are the only places in NA where you're not constantly having your ears gauged out, in the middle of nowhere in the countryside? Like I'm so sorry, but some days I'm so overwhelmed, I just want to scream at everyone to stfu. Tell me I'm not alone in this

Geniuely why do I need to a “convince“ fee ?? You guys already add tax when I pay my rent through the app. For what reason other sickening greed do you guys need to charge a convince fee that raises depending on how much I decided to pay. On top of we have new management so they raised the price of everything including the convince fee rate. I’m so pissed I shouldn’t have to pay an extra 40 dollars to pay my rent.

(In terrible at wording things so bare with me 💔)I’ve had a few things happen that made me really uncomfortable and are hard for me to think about but I feel like some of them I shouldn’t be so affected by bc it’s not technically sa I don’t think? For example today I was on a roller coaster on the end seat and my brothers were there but on the other side (4 seats a row) bc I wanted the end seat but then some guy came out of nowhere and filled in the spot but whats weird is the people in line behind us was a family and that guy wasn’t there before I didn’t even see where he came from but he randomly jumped in last second and I guess cut in front of them? Which was no big deal I prefer to not have to sit next to a random person bc I have issues with socializing and stuff which is why I usually always make sure I’m seated next to one of my brothers or parents but I didn’t think much of it obviously he wasn’t doing anything wrong but then as soon as the ride started he just started staring at me the entire time and touching me? Like genuinely the entire fucking ride I don’t get it I don’t even know what exactly he was looking at bc I was scared to look for some reason like I said before I have issues with socializing and a big thing with that is eye contact but at first it started with just the staring but then he started to like force his arm over to mine and then like get closer to my body and yk im not going into details (full grown man and I’m a minor btw) and it made me really uncomfortable and idk if it was just like stress or what but I felt like I was going to black out and started to see sparkles while panicky I’ve noticed I do this a lot in uncomfortable situations not sure why but anyways when the ride ended the dude got up and genuinely jumped out of his seat and ran? My one brother said he saw him looking at me the whole time and he thought he was talking to me but still thought it was weird too but anyways I feel like that’s not sa? Even though he was sexually touching me it doesn’t feel extreme enough to classify as sa bc it seems anytime something like this happens if I tell my parents they brush it off like it’s no big deal and “just a part of life” which may be true ig but I’m not really sure if that a normal thing to have to go through as a legal child? like they don’t even care about how I feel? Like even though it’s not that extreme it still lowk ruined my day and made me feel really uncomfortable but as if that wasn’t already bad enough next thing you know guess who I fucking see behind us on the next ride we go on luckily the row was full already but it’s weird he was on the same exact ride when it’s on the other side of the park that the first ride was on then after we left that ride we saw him again walking around and he was just watching me I was so uncomfortable and when I tried to tell my parents about it they wouldn’t even listen they just kept talking to my aunt that was there but after that we left which I’m glad but I still feel weird about it idk why whenever I have an interaction like this I can stop thinking about it and I keep replaying it in my head over and over even though I hate thinking about it I can’t stop it I don’t understand why my brain even does that it like fixates on bad experiences until they become blurry if that makes sense but anyway yeah

They are learning the recorder this year! Why???? I have to apologize to my neighbors in advance now and get the bus schedule in case I want to jump in front of it!!

But seriously…..why??? Those things are the worst! And why do they have to bring it home to “practice”? No one is gonna grow up to be a professional recorder player!!

I love my child and do everything I can to ensure he thrives in school and in life but the recorder is where I draw the line. I just might “lose” the damn thing!

Idk how but i want to
I willl figure it out
I will lock tf in
Ik
I have the hunger and it is jot going anywhere anytime soon till i am there

I’m a dude who’s got a good number of friends, friends that would fight for me and risk their life for me and I’d do the same for them. I once was very self deprecating but now I’ve gotten better, I no longer hate myself and I give myself a bit more grace than I did in my early teen years (I’m about to be 20). My biggest goal for my life is to do what I can to help the people important to me be happy. I want so badly to feel needed, and yet I’ve always thought everyone would be better off if they forgot about me. Not in a sense that I should do something permanent I’ve long since stopped thinking about that, but I feel like if I could I’d use the men in black neurolyzer and make them all forget me. I probably won’t feel this way when I wake up in the morning but I needed to rant and I didn’t wanna make my homegirl worry about me since she’s off at college, yall have a blessed night and I hope you conquer whatever troubles you face !

I’m calling because I have an out of the ordinary problem and need to talk to someone about a solution.

Yes, I am well aware that I can check my balance online or in the app. No, I am not calling to start service or to make changes to my existing service. If I wanted to do any of those things, I would pull up the app and be done in 10 seconds. I would never subject myself to this horrible phone experience to do something so simple.

Yet here is the phone tree with no option to speak with someone and no option to press a button to be connected to customer service or technical support.

And when the always (purposefully?) idiotic chatbot answers, it is even worse. “Please state the reason for your call.“

I succinctly state the actual reason for my call, only to be met with, “I didn’t get that. You can say things like: check my balance.”

And as time goes on, these systems are only getting worse (again, purposefully?). Things that used to work that don’t work anymore:

Pressing 0 to bypass the phone tree. Speaking in a language other than English. Mumbling incoherently. Repeatedly saying “representative“ or similar. Swearing. All of these things will just loop you back to the beginning or hang up on you.

And by the way, no, your menu options have not changed, and you cannot always be experiencing higher than normal call volume.

And, when I finally do get through to someone, there’s a decent chance that it’s literally just going to be a human reading canned responses off of a monitor who will be equally as unsure what to do with my out of the ordinary issue.

Too many people are comfortable bringing their nasty ass dogs in places. My local WalMart is infamous about this even though the sign out front says "No pets".

I went the other day and no lie saw 3 dogs in the store. 2 were in the basket and the other was just casually sniffing the produce. Garbage behavior.

It frustrated me so much, I took the survey on the receipt to complain. The manager called me the next week. She said she 100% agrees with me but upper management said to not kick these people out because they got sued.

A man came in with his funky dog and it shit in the aisle. They told him to leave and that his dog was not a service dog. He said it was BUT he had NO papers and NO vest to prove anything. He left and is suing because the dog apparently IS a service dog. Fuck that dude. Now the gates are open for every 65 year old lady with a weiner dog.

If I see people with animals in the store, I always say something. And I own 2 dogs and would never do trash like this.

I remember saying that I really don't like Superman speech to Lex Luthor in the 2025 movie because I feel like I shouldn't need Superman to spell out how human he is and that speech feels like it's one of those moments of the author going "Do you get it?". There are many other things that make me not like that movie, but any time I say that people say things along the lines of "Oh, so you prefer Snyder Superman?" and like, no I never said that, as a matter of fact I think Snyder's is really boring and the Jesus allegories are as subtle as a sledgehammer, am I not allowed to dislike both?

This is just one example, but it's so annoying how people assume that if you don't like X then it means you think Y better or when you point out the flaws of X they bring up the flaws of Y as a counterpoint as if both X and Y's flaws nullified one another

I know Mobile Ad developers want money. I get that. But if you are going to give us an ad, DO NOT GIVE US ONE AFTER WE DECLINE AN OFFER TO WATCH AN AD FOR EXTRA COINS. Its a waste of time and a waste of a button…

What witch did I piss off to curse me. It's my birthday soon and I celebrated with my friends on saturday and then a different group of friends on sunday, and it's been probably one of the worst birthdays yet, and its one of my first proper birthdays after leaving the jehovah witnesses too. I had an arguement with a friend and a friend "split up" on Saturday, then on Sunday while out with my friends I got called a fat bitch by some random men (btw, these men came up to me with my friend group and said this to me, it was not part of a larger conversation either) , and today someone drove past me and threw a bunch of water all over me. I know this doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but this is all the cherry on top of one of the mentally hardest summers I've ever had, and what was supposed to be a relaxing summer before I start uni has probably been one of the lowest times in my life. Im not saying that for pity, but i have been trying so hard to get better mentally, to get healthy and to not waste my summer on my phone or in my room, and to save money for uni, and it feels like every attempt has backfired and made things worse instead.
I'm turning 21 tomorrow, and a very stupid part of me hopes that this is actually just some big curse that is either lifted as I turn this new age, or that I will prick my finger on a needle, because a very long sleep sounds pretty great right now

Sorry, I just needed to rant because my (remaining friends) haven't responded for a couple days, I just needed it off my chest and to have a little cry

We’ve lost the art of being curious and actually wanting to learn through our friends because we’re terrified of looking dumb. Everything is just one Google search or TikTok video away. People have opted to ask AI instead because they’re too afraid to look stupid when they don't know something. We've all become pseudo-intellectuals just because we have all the answers in our pockets. We don’t connect by asking each other questions anymore we're just too afraid to admit what we don't know.