dragonlover
@dragonlover@lemmy.zip
- Comment on [deleted] 2 weeks ago:
I am appalled that no one has brought this up so far- but it hurts because they are touching the cervix, which generally doesn’t get touched, and can be very painful to hit. The speculum they are inserting is designed to slightly open the cervix for the examination.
OP, there are many sizes of vagina. You may have one that’s on the smaller side, with a low pelvic floor. My partner is the same way, and penetration can be painful for them. We have switched to using very small toys or focusing on clitoral stimulation to get them off instead of relying on penetration.
If your doctor clears you, you may just have a low pelvic floor, and may not like penetrative sex. Which is fine! It’s just good to know about yourself.
- Comment on The savings are trickling down to us 2 weeks ago:
Not quite, at least not in American healthcare terms. A copay is your portion of the cost for an appointment, procedure, or prescription. For example of the doctor visit is $100 and my copay is $25, I pay $25 and the insurance pays $75 (in practice the insurance doesn’t ever really pay their full share but that’s a more complicated part of the equation.)
The deductible is how much I have to pay out of pocket in a year before the insurance starts paying anything. My deductible might be say, $1000, meaning I have to pay $1000 out of pocket before the insurance kicks in to cover anything at all.
max out of pocket is the maximum amount you will pay for medical in a year.
Oh and of course there is the premium which you pay monthly for the pleasure of having insurance.
So if your premium is $200, copay is $25, your deductible is $1000, and your max out of pocket is $5000, and a (normal non specialty) doctor visit is $100, you have to visit the doctor 10 times before the insurance pays anything at all (you pay the full $100 each time) and then the 11th visit is $25 and the insurance pays the rest. If you visit the doctor enough to hit max out of pocket (160 more visits to a normal non specialty doctor), then the insurance kicks in to pay 100%. And no your monthly $200 premium doesn’t go towards your max out of pocket
Most people never hit their max out of pocket and most people without kids that Ive talked to never hit their deductible unless they have a condition that requires regular treatment or if they get into an accident or have something major happen. Then you can blow out your deductible / max out of pocket in one hospital visit.
So basically your insurance is paid to do diddly squat, except prevent you from going bankrupt if you get into a car accident (except they will totally find ways to deny your claim anyways).
Source: am a trans man with a neurological condition. I’m a medical nightmare and have had to learn to be a self advocate through multiple American insurances.
- Comment on When did the Internet come to reflect society? Or has society shaped the internet? Were we always distrusting mean and vindictive before the net? Are we really that bad? 1 month ago:
A phenomenon I’ve seen that’s rather interesting is I moved from the US to Spain, and everyone here is friendly and far more trusting and kind to random strangers than the US ever was. My suspicion and anxiety around strangers has dropped significantly.
The number of random conversations I get into is much higher, people take an active interest in small talk even when standing in line, I’ve had more people randomly approach me to ask for help, and the idea of someone hurting you physically is an alien concept.
If you’re from the US, I think the US is just cooked man. Spanish internet, at least from what I’ve been able to find, is also more civil, even in places talking politics. Now maybe I’m not in the myriad of WhatsApp groups where people are actually getting I to it, but the public facing side of things is far more civil, and I rarely see Spaniards in mainstream socials like reddit and whatnot. The joke I’ve heard is that Spain “hasn’t really gotten on board with the internet yet”.
I think that the modern internet is fed by a social media stream that incentivises devisiveness. Engagement is higher on negative posts, and engagement drives the algorithm. I’ve long been against algorithms feeding you content because those algorithms are slanted to keep you engaged longer, which means showing you content that will upset you, then calming you down with kitten photos until you’re ready to get into another fight.
So to answer your question, I don’t think it’s a chicken and egg problem, I think it’s a problem with amplification. I think the English speaking internet has long been US centric (or at least caters to the US unfairly) and the US has bred a suspicious and anxiety ridden society. Then corporations came along and figured out just how much gas to put on that fire to squeeze money out of people through social media to take control of what was once a free space of creativity and turn it into an engagement farm, where art and conservation has been converted to “content” and distressing news and devisive conversation has become tools to keep you invested in your feed long enough for them to build a consumer profile on you to ship you targetted ads on Amazon. This in turn amplifies the suspicion and fear already inherent in the meatspace sphere, which feeds the online polarization.
When you stop either one - either unplugging or entering a calm and connected IRL space (like I did) you break the amplification, and the anxiety stops. This is why “internet detox” is a thing people try to do.
The internet in its current form is addictive, and like a parasite corporations have learned exactly how much they can take from you and not kill you. It wants to keep you engaged and scared, but it is also exploiting societal issues that were already present to begin with.
- Comment on Yay, sponsored emojis! 1 month ago:
That’s legit. I have a burner account that is only used for things I absolutely have to, like my utility bills.
- Comment on Yay, sponsored emojis! 1 month ago:
In many parts of the world Whatsapp is the dominate communication platform. My landlord sends me my utility bills through WhatsApp, as is my doctor’s scheduling platform, and my vet’s contact info, etc. It’s basically impossible to do things without it.
- Comment on Hands On with the Anbernic RG Rotate: Weird, Unique, and Instantly my Favorite 2 months ago:
How will the upcoming android changes affect this? Most of the emulators would be sideloaded right?
Would love this but worried it’ll become obsolete / locked out of updates once google does it’s stupid shit