u/AdUnfair7688

I saw in a recent thread that What I Am by Edie Brickell and New Bohemians sounds like it’s from 1993 but was recorded in 1988. Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes was recorded in 1983 but sounds like a 90s track.

I’ve seen discussions here about albums and artists ahead of their time. But what about individual songs? Which ones sound completely ahead of their time besides the two mentioned?

A bit of background: I grew up southern Baptist in Waco, Texas….a place where most people are evangelical and the culture is solidly Christian conservative.

I’m an elder millennial, so the events I’m talking about happened around 2003-2004ish. I have since moved out of state and fully deconstructed. I’m still good friends with a lot of other youth group survivors from my old church who’ve also deconstructed.

Some fellow exvy friends and I were talking about a weird witnessing activity we did as a youth group at a local mall. It was basically “witnessing” about “our lord and savior Jesus Christ” (a phrase that still makes me wince!) to mall employees and taking Polaroids with them after you witnessed.

Since this was in the home of Southern Baptist domination, I’d bet that literally every mall employee witnessed to that day already knew about the “good news.”

On that note, I also had some deep deep guilty feelings about not witnessing to enough people. I was a child. Again, in Texas. Why were people guilting me about “being ashamed of the gospel”?

Tell me your cringey witnessing stories!

Here’s Colorado treasure Kyle Clark interviewing Victor Marx, a truly batshit GOP candidate for governor. Marx claims that he does exorcisms over the phone, won’t answer questions about how many people he’s killed, and supposedly called a military strike against ISIS despite being a civilian. Enjoy I guess???

Because I do. I vividly remember having the Astros as “my NL team” back in the day and cheering them on in the ‘05 World Series. It was good to have Texas represented after all. I grew up in Waco, so half of the folks were Ranger fans and the other half liked the Lastro Disastros.

When they switched to the AL, I dropped them. When they were outed as cheating, I got rabidly against them. Any other fans have a similar trajectory? It’s weird to think about in retrospect.

I was listening to Tramp the Dirt Down by Elvis Costello and yeah it slaps. The lyrics still hit decades later.

What other songs do you enjoy that are about *objectively* evil people? Which songs are lyrically devastating and pull no punches about the impact of evil people? Doesn’t have to be about a politician.

Hey, fellow travelers. In my career as a civil rights professional specializing in Title IX**, I've unfortunately had a front row seat to people doing horrific shit to children and young adults.

With good reason, people are feeling tons of unpleasant feelings listening to the Jimmy Savile episodes. In order to not lose my shit and die inside everyday, I've had to come up with strategies to deal with the the worst parts of humanity. Vicarious trauma is VERY REAL. Take care of yourselves. Here are my tips:

• Clear boundaries. It's tempting to go on wiki deep-dives and watch every Savile crime doc, but step away from the upsetting content. I don't even have my work email on my phone. Boundaries aren't selfish and they don't mean you're uncaring. Boundaries are self-preservation.
• Writing out all your feelings uncensored. Don't type it. Use a pen and paper. Burn or tear up the page when you're finished. Seems silly but it feels really good. Hat tip to one of my social worker friends for this idea.
• Compassion fatigue is real. Step away if you need to, even if it's just for a few minutes.
• Feel your feelings. As mentioned in the episodes, there was crying during the research process. There's been many days where I need to shut my office door and just ugly-cry for some time. If you need to cry, do it. Don't put a time limit on this.
• If you need to call your therapist or best friend, do it. Whoever your safe person is, give them a heads up that you need to talk through some things.
• If something you hear brings back trauma, acknowledge it.
• The good old suggestion that seems annoying but really works: deep breathing and meditation. Find a guided meditation or a soothing YouTube video. Take as many deep breaths as you need.
• Focus completely on something that makes you happy for 5 solid minutes, uninterrupted. I like to cuddle my senior corgi and watch baseball.
• There's decent evidence that playing Tetris helps with trauma (including vicarious trauma!)
• When in doubt, r/eyebleach is the best.

Other folks who deal with emotionally difficult shit in their careers, what else do you suggest?

**For those outside the U.S., Title IX is a federal law that safeguards people from sex-based discrimination in institutions that receive federal funding. Mostly schools. It covers harassment, assault and rape, stalking, DV, gender identity protection, etc. The scope is pretty huge. Feel free to AMA about it.