Certainly agree with some of it but I don’t know if I necessarily agree with legalised non-harmful CP. I absolutely think that non-acting paedophiles deserve compassion, I can’t imagine how genuinely awful it must be to have thoughts like that, particularly if they clash with your own moral values. Even trying to get help could potentially wreck your life so it feels for some its a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. I wish I knew what the answer could ever be but absolutely we need to somehow reduce the automatic prejudice on those who want help. As you say, conversion doesn’t seem to be the answer, if you haven’t seen it then I highly recommend watching Louis Theroux’s A Place for Paedophiles where he spends time at Coalinga State Hospital looking at people convicted of these types of crimes where they are held indefinitely unless they enroll in a conversion therapy course which has an insanely low number of successful patients being able to leave it and get back to the real world. The stuff feels inhumane and almost designed to fail.
Its an area that absolutely needs more researchers and resources thrown at it but no government in this awful timeline is ever going to survive the right wing press backlash on “wanting to let predators live around children”.

I hate it and want absolutely nothing to do with it

Oh I’m aware, just wild is all. At least with antifascist they shorten it to antifa so that they can pretend its not the same thing.

I try my best to post to the creative ones when I’ve made something worth posting but yeah, not exactly buzzing with activity. I’ll post them in case theres some new ones people haven’t heard of.
!handmade@lemmy.world
!imadethis@lemmy.zip
!leathercraft@lemmy.ca
!Art_Alchemist_Guild@lemmy.today - this is rather active and fun
And in the spoiler below is my own pretty new and mildly nsfw crafting community, slightly self-promotional but thought to post in case people like it. Not much there yet, want to post more but I’ve been busy and had a bit of a creative block.

I find it wild that “progressive” can be negative. Like, no, I’m not one of those progressive types, I’m happy being regressive…

Lol, totally agree about Techmoan, AvE and Electroboom. I hadn’t thought of why I’ve not watched them in forever but I think you hit the nail on the head.

Colin Furze is another I think fits into this, when all his stuff was janky and sketchy as all hell, like a attaching a pulse jet hydroformed using a pressure washer to a bike, great, loved it. It was really like he just thought something would be fun and made it with the tools he had. But ever since he got a youtube series everything started getting less janky and more properly thought out. All the things were bizarre contrived contraptions that have no use and made using fancy CNC machines, expensive specialty parts and he even has time to make fancy decorations for it all now rather than looking janky by design. Or otherwise hes digging under his house again and I’m just not interested.

“Woke brigade” - go on, do elaborate

I had heard so much about it that when I visited the US years ago I really wanted to make sure I tried it. I was rather disappointed to say the least, as you say, it was fine… nothing special, just fine.

The first one I’ve had recently that has really wowed me was Popeye’s opening in the UK, holy crap that was amazing. Huge bit of chicken, perfectly cooked, so juicy inside and so crispy on the outside. The proper amount of sauce, it even looked like the pictures… I crave that experience again…

Probably gonna have american’s rolling eyes at me waxing lyrical about Popeye’s but I’ve had it before in America and it was really good, but not superlative like the UK one.

Do I think theres something magical about it here? No. My theory is that it is because its new here, expectations and standards are really, really high, they need to establish themselves as worth going to over KFC or the local bossman chicken shops but I have no doubt that the standards and quality will start to drop, corners get cut as more franchises open and it will be back to ‘fine’.

Try not to be a dick. I just feel if everyone followed that then the world might be a better place.

Is it pedantry if it isn’t true though? Or am I being woooooshed?

I definitely don’t have that much, thats really impressive, but I’m definitely increasing my numbers bit by bit! I know some people have their forever go-tos but I do love to use them to express myself so I don’t really see myself sticking to any particular one forever so I imagine I’ll end up with a good variety at some point.

I think the hair stuff works because its generally a bit more subtle unless you go overboard, and its a much lighter fragrance. I do also really like the papaya one but the banana one is better for my hair.

The place I get my dupes from is Eden Perfumes, they have a location in London and one in Brighton but they also do their stuff online, including refills.

What you say about the perfume being different in summer is interesting, I never thought about it being the season itself with different humidity and temperatures that might influence how it smells. I guess in winter too it clings to all the extra clothes you wear vs summer.

I never get the chance to talk about this! I’m gonna go a bit mad with detail I’m afraid…

I love perfumes, its kind of another form of self expression for me which I vary depending on season and mood/vibe. I do have to admit I cheat a little, there is a sustainable (and vegan) brand of perfume near me that make copies of perfumes (and their own originals) and sell them in refillable bottles so that you can get a discount on refill. This just makes it a lot more accessible to try out new perfumes and not feel guilty, even if it might not be as long lasting or as powerful (for example its something like £18 (£15 for refill) for 30ml vs £70 for the original, but they do copies of far more expensive ones too).

My absolute favourite this summer has been (the copy of) Mugler Alien Goddess, its very vanilla, coconut and jasmine, super light and summery and just… yeah I absolutely love it.

On that theme I do like the original Mugler Alien as well, much more powerful and heavy, lots of jasmine again but has that “amber” note that makes it much more rich. Love to wear that one on a night out.

Last winter I did really like a Dior Ambre Nuit copy. Having smelled it again just now to remind myself I’m a bit… eh? Maybe just not into the mood or maybe my taste changed a bit or just the season but right now I really don’t wanna wear it. Its very amber and heavy, smells super fancy and elegant and posh. Maybe I’ll warm to it again later.

I also really like a perfume I got from Lush, its their Turmeric Latte, again this is a very late autumnal/winter kinda vibe. Its very vanilla, sweet and spicy - almost more chai latte than turmeric, but it smells so warm and cozy. I loved wearing this as my every day fragrance last autumn.

As for most reviled, any of those damn Impulse body sprays that bring to mind girls in the mid 2000s basically bathing themselves in. I’m also not too keen on perfumes or body sprays that smell solely of fruit, like cherry or strawberry, again its very reminiscent of those cheap body sprays.

Deodorant I do use a scented one but its very subtle and mostly just smells a bit like the fabric conditioner I use when I wash my clothes so its not like its overpowering.

I also do like having a bit of smell in my hair, I’ve had so many people comment on me smelling nice when I’ve used a tiny bit of banana scented hair mask/conditioner just to help combat some frizzy bits (Garnier Banana Hair Food).

As for non-body smells. I do like bubble baths with nice smells and I love having candles on in the evening or in the bath too. I also make a sugar scrub for exfoliating from sugar, coconut oil and a few drops of a nice smelling essential oil blend - my current one smells a lot like some kind of orange sweet.

I do like scented soaps too, particularly from Lush, although I do find that some are amazing and some are absolutely awful. They did a watermelon one recently with some profits going to medical services in Gaza. I loved the message but I thought the soap itself smelt awful… Lush do some really amazing scents but I rarely buy much from them as I don’t really have much need for their actual products annoyingly.

One scented thing I have which was kind of unexpected was is my Nyx buttermelt blush. None of the rest of my makeup really smells of anything but that one smells really sweet and fruity and its a really nice little moment when I’m getting ready.

I also have reed diffusers around the house, current one is a rhubarb and elderflower one which smells amazing.

So yeah, love fragrances, I don’t really know exactly what I don’t like, mostly what I do. Florals, jasmine, coconut, banana, fruit (so long as its not the only note), amber, sandalwood, bergamot. Not really smelt anything with leather, musk or tobacco notes, the fact that none of my stuff ever features them must mean I don’t ever pick it out…

Not at all really. I don’t really care about winning things but I really hate losing and I don’t find competitive experiences to be very fun.

I want to get more, a proper head knife and some fancier skiving knives. Problem is I want to make little sheaths or covers for all of them but its becoming apparent how much time it will take just to make a ton of those vs doing anything else…

deleted by creator

Christ, just looked up the safety sheet for that black patina, you aren’t joking:

• Aqueous dilute solution of Nitric Acid & Copper Sulfate
• Transparent light blue liquid. Viscosity of water. Odorless.
• The theoretical LD50 (rat/oral) for Novacan Black Patina is 1913 mg/kg
• H300 Fatal if swallowed.

I lost interest in SGU the moment they were able to just ‘phone home’ with the magic mind stone things. Just utterly destroyed the whole isolation theme for me. That and so many of the characters were unlikeable.

Technically its is all these knives. And out of those it is the 5 skiving knives at the bottom that I’m most respectful of. Not only are they razor sharp but when skiving you aren’t cutting directly down to the work surface and I’ve caught myself putting my hand in really silly places before. Yet, never injured myself even once with any of them… yet.

But in reality the only things I’ve properly injured myself with have been a stitching chisel and a belt/strap cutter pictured below. The chisel I was using, stupidly, to go through that super thick part of the pouch its resting on. Thats a whole centimetre of layers of thick, resin backed leather. And I didn’t have a pull board thing yet. It refused to come out and when I eventually freed it, I scraped it against the web of my left thumb making a big scratch up my hand that bled profusely and took forever to heal.

The belt cutter was the worst cut. I tried to change the blade… you lift that little red cap but the blade is actually secured within it. It is incredibly stiff and when I pulled it the whole thing gave way and I sliced my thumb open on it. That took a really long time to heal and even longer to stop being sensitive, so even when healed I couldn’t do anything because it hurt to much to use a needle.

I have to admit I’m not entirely outside though, I do have ADHD and, well, that has been an exercise of learning in its own right but in different ways and learning to understand myself and others.

I think when I first got my ADHD diagnosis I kind of rejected the umbrella term of neurodiverse because it lumped things like this, which are often autism related traits, with ADHD which I assumed to be purely around executive dysfunction. That is to say I didn’t like to be perceived as being socially different, my issues were related to more easily identified things around task management and nothing to do with how I think or behave or act.

But I’m recently learning that it doesn’t really seem to be true at all. I didn’t realise how many of my “personality quirks” are actually common to other people with ADHD or actually how there can be significant crossovers of traits with those that are autistic (either mostly alone or AuDHD). For example RSD seems to be something that I experience rather acutely and understanding it as something other than a flaw in my personality has been really healthy. Same with the way that I talk to people or understanding that talking about shared experiences can be perceived by others as making the conversation all about me…

So whilst I score low on autism spectrum tests, I am learning more and more about how neurodiverse is a not a term to shy away from or reject as there really is a lot more in common than I previously admitted to myself. And to that end, how could I possibly reject, fail to understand or learn to accommodate somebody else’s issues just because they are different to my own?

Weirdly, I am actually in the medical field, -ish. I’m more in one of those background healthcare support type roles (biomedical scientist) but have worked in and have a good understanding of the medical field as a whole and sometimes I’ve managed to use that knowledge to try to help some of my friends who do have some of these struggles to help them understand the best way to actually navigate healthcare and “how to play the game”. (Not that playing the game should be required but we are talking short term healthcare here rather than long term change).

Examples I can think of was when I was talking to a friend looking for help with a non-specific chronic pain problem and things like explaining or understanding pain from the Mankoski Pain Scale compared to the typical 1-10 “how much does it hurt” scale - because the former relates the pain to life and how it affects you, not just an arbitrary “ouchy” scale.

Similarly I had to recommend that she not try to over explain everything. Some doctors have egos or can be very dismissive of certain patients so was helping her understand that she should just be purely descriptive - “this hurts when I do this”, “it hurts most in the morning”, “it stops me doing x, y or z” rather than trying to use any researched terminology or any self diagnosis “I think I have fibromyalgia”. Let the doctor come to the conclusion based on what you tell them.

Now, to be clear to anyone reading this, that does absolutely not mean that you just accept whatever they say or that you cannot challenge them. In a perfect would you could tell them whatever you want and they will listen and come to, hopefully, the correct answer. However we know that doctors, particularly GPs, can often be stressed, overworked, dismissive, wary of hypochondriacs, people seeking drugs that can be abused or even just having their egos bruised. The advice I try to give is really just around not setting off those alarm bells - and for some who do think a little more literally and don’t speak in the way that the original post talks about - because that leads to missed diagnoses, frustrations with the system and worse outcomes, just because the two people don’t quite understand each other. It is a genuine problem in healthcare and we need to be better at training doctors to deal with it but if in the short term I can help some people out in not being dismissed then I consider it worth it.

Sorry this got waaaaay too long before I even noticed… so, errrr, thank you for coming to my TED talk?

It has genuinely been something I’ve had to understand the other way and be really aware of now that I interact with more neurodiverse people, because to me it absolutely is clear and natural to know and it is intuitive because that is how I was brought up with people, media etc. And being British we almost seem to take it to another level at times… it genuinely was hard for me to understand that there are people that struggle with it which almost doesnt seem possible when you are so used to it. And I still do it, its a very hard habit to unlearn but as soon as i notice any confusion im quick to clarify or correct myself. Some people are just pricks though and will argue it out…