Car troubles, and thoughts on being mean.

Lord, it's really been almost three days since my last post? That's maybe my largest gap in a long time. Better not get into the habit.

I have an excuse, my car is deadish. basically since the snow a few days ago it has been parked a couple of miles away, and after an almost six hour wait last night I finally got it towed to a shop who informed me that the transmission fluid basically all fell out of it at once, so the burning smell I hear when I rev the engine is not something that should be burning.

The car is old and it is probably not worth the money to fix, so I am looking into other options, meanwhile I will get it towed back to my house and look for someone who wants it for parts or who thinks they can fix the transmission.

Anyway, so I have been seeing a lot of people post things about being mean lately, really it happens regularly but for some reason there has been a cluster in the last couple days. When I say being mean I, well, mean something along the lines of "Better to be mean and tell the truth rather than lie and be nice". This seems pretty lazy to me.

Like, I get the sentiment, you should base most interactions on honesty, and that means sometimes telling people things they don't want to hear, but here's the thing, that doesn't actually require you to be mean. If you find that you have regular interactions that can be described as "mean" in this context one of two things is happening, either the person you are talking to interprets any criticism as being mean, or you haven't made an effort to say things in a way that doesn't hurt someone's feelings. The first option you can do little about, the second is all on you.

I don't like that sentiment, the English language is amazingly flexible and precise when used properly, you can tell someone hard truths without being an asshole with only a small amount of thought, so you either don't want to put that thought in, or cannot conceive of a way to say what you want to say without being a toolbox. So if you choose this path you are either lazy or stupid, which is it?

I feel like embracing this idea is only a short distance away from using harmful slurs because you don't feel the need to be PC. Make the effort you wiener.


That's all from me, I have a three day weekend and get to do all my Christmas shopping without a vehicle now, also spend another who knows how long waiting for a tow in the next day or two. How spoiled we get, and how quickly, I only started driving over the summer and now a few days without a car feels like torture, somehow I will survive this harsh time.