u/MissusLunafreya

Hot take:

Walter White turning down Elliot and Gretchen’s money was actually 100% the right thing to do. The fans always say his ego ruined everything, but let’s be real. They built a multi-billion dollar empire off his genius research, bought him out for pennies, and then tried to toss him some patronizing pity-cash to clear their own guilty conscience. Rejecting that disrespectful, fake charity to go build his own empire was the ultimate alpha move. You do not accept pity money from the people who stole your legacy. They are lucky Walter didn’t gang rape them for revenge.

My little brother was born with severe Downs Syndrome and would have never matured mentally past the age of 5. My parents believed that they would be blessed with a healthy child, so my mother never went to the clinic for her pregnancy until her birth. I know they regret not doing that because my mother would have gotten him aborted, had she known of his condition.

My parents are from China, but immigrated to the US while my mother was pregnant with me. My parents are still influenced by Chinese culture and traditions I grew up learning these values (though I was never taught Chinese because my parents’ English was poor at the time and they wanted to learn English with me).

Familial reputation is extremely important in China. The actions of one person can affect their entire family name’s reputation. This is why it’s so important for Asians to perform well academically and have a respectable and high-paying job. People with low salary jobs and no college education are seen as a failure in society and lesser than. A person like this reflects badly on his parents, as they are seen as unable to raise a successful child. This reflects badly on the grandparents, who raised the parents that gave birth to the failure. The saying “it takes a village to raise a child” applies here because if a child is unsuccessful, it looks bad on the whole village.

One of the only things worse than this is to have a disabled family member, especially if you are a parents of or sibling to a disabled person, more so to a mentally disabled person. At-birth disabilities are seen as a curse or punishment to the parents or family of the disabled. The idea of a disability being due to karma gives the family a negative reputation because past actions are the reason that a child would be born with a disability. Disabled people are seen as less than human, a failure from birth, and useless to society. Disabled people are seen as shameful for the family because they’ll never live up to Chinese standards. They are supposed to be hidden away as to prevent society from being disrupted or inconvenienced by the disabled. Disabled people aren’t seen as belonging China’s society.

My brother was born when I was six. I remember being in the delivery room, anticipating my younger sibling’s birth. I was shielded from witnessing my brother’s actual birth by my father, but I distinctly remember my parents’ excitement disappearing completely when my mother first held him. I could tell right away that something was wrong with him when I first looked at him. Pictures of my mother holding him after birth showed her with a blank expression. I remember her crying after his birth because my brother came out disabled.

As my brother grew up, his symptoms began to worsen. At first, he was fussy and didn’t meet many of his developmental milestones, but then that turned into temper tantrums, violent outbursts, and constant screaming and crying. I was tasked as his caretaker increasingly over time until I became his only parent. My mother became addicted to gambling and my father turned to drinking and smoking. We stopped going out as a family in public because of my brother. Family members still living in China stopped reaching out to us. My parents’ resentment of my brother’s existence was taken out on me if my brother were to act out. My parents stopped hosting events at our house, and I could no longer see my friends or have friends over. My parents started to argue and yell at each other almost nightly since my brother’s birth. My brother’s existence was a burden on everyone.

I hated caring for my brother. I was the only one keeping him alive, and all of the parental responsibilities that come with having a child were put on me, on top with the additional responsibilities that come with taking care of a disabled child, like maintaining his hygiene, on top of being a child and having to be my own parent, on top of taking care of myself, on top of meet my parents’ academic expectations of me. Nothing could calm him down once he started throwing a fit. I always had to share with him when I was younger, and most of the few things I had to myself were destroyed by him. I couldn’t play with friends because of him. My parents would also break what little I had and beat me if I failed to be a good older sister to him. Most of my life was just studying and caretaking.

A few years ago, I started to mix crushed melatonin pills and Tylenol PM into his drinks so that my brother would relax and fall asleep. I got the idea after seeing the What Would You Do episode where the acting babysitter tries to force the acting child to take Tylenol to help them fall asleep to take a nap. Mixing the melatonin and Tylenol into his drinks worked, and I enjoyed the quiet time I got to myself while forgetting about my brother until he woke up. I started to mix more into his drinks so that he would sleep for longer, and eventually I gave him an amount that had him sleeping most of the day, and too tired to act up if he were awake. My parents didn’t question his change in behavior, so I kept mixing the medicines into his drinks.

My mom and dad stopped arguing as much, and we started becoming more connected as a family again. We started eating dinner together, watching shows and movies together, and sometimes going out in public together as a family of three. They felt confident enough to begin communicating with my family more, since my brother wasn’t awake to scream during my parents’ calls with family. My parents eventually started showing affection for each other like before and began on dates again as their addictions lessened in severity. I was happier and a weight was lifted off of my shoulders.

I started to leave the caps loose or off of the medicine bottles to make it easier to grab when it came time to mix them into my brothers’ drinks. I didn’t think it’d be an issue since my brother was either asleep or too tired to reach for the medicine. This worked for years up until his death.

Around a year ago, brother died from overdosing on Tylenol. I had left several Tylenol bottles out with the caps loose and seals broken, which my brother had gotten to. He drank from all of the bottles and I found him unresponsive when going to grab the medicine to prepare a drink for him. All of the Tylenol bottles were on the floor along with him.

He died not long after he got to the hospital. My parents and I didn’t react emotionally to his death. We weren’t happy that he died because he was still a part of our family, but we weren’t upset that he had left our family. His loss wasn’t profound because my brother was barely present in our lives before his death. The only thing that changed was that the bed he used to sleep in just wasn’t occupied anymore.

My brother’s death was investigated not long after he died. I was interrogated by investigators, and I told them that I gave my brother a drink with a crushed melatonin pill mixed in every night to help him fall sleep, and that I took the Tylenol to help me sleep through the night since we shared a room and because he would make noises in his sleep that would wake me up. I know that what I told the investigators wasn’t entirely true, but there was no benefit in telling the investigators that I was giving my brother melatonin and Tylenol to make him sleep all day. Our house was examined as a potential crime scene, but nothing was found that would indicate abuse or foul play. His death was ruled as accidental after it became clear that my brother willingly drank from the bottles around a month after he died.

We didn’t have a funeral for him, and no obituary was ever written for him. Nobody other than my parents and I would attend the funeral, and there would be nobody other than us to read his obituary, so my parents decided not to take the time and spend the money on writing an obituary and hosting a funeral that only my parents and I would attend. I was given my brother’s ashes to spread as I wished by my parents, but I threw his ashes in the trash. I didn’t have any fond memories of him and there was nowhere to spread his ashes since he only stayed home. I didn’t see the point in keeping his ashes, and my parents clearly didn’t want to keep them either. I donated all of my brother’s clothes and belongings to Goodwill.

Since my brother’s death, my family has started to go back to how it was before my brother’s birth. My mother and father are spending time together like they used to and stopped disciplining me so heavily. Our financial situation has gotten better, as my mother has stopped gambling outside of special occasions and money isn’t being spent on supplies for my brother anymore. My father has slowed down on the drinking and smoking. My parents have started to host get togethers with co-workers and friends. My family has started talking with my parents and I daily again, and some family from China has visited the US and spent the night over at his house since then. My parents and I are spending time together, and we go out often to hang out as a family. I finally can spend my time on myself again and I don’t have to be ashamed to bring up my brother anymore. I can have friends over and can attend parties and events like I used to when I was younger. I can enjoy privacy with my own room again, and I can have my own things without having to worry about them being taken or broken.

I don’t feel regret for leaving the medicine out or for throwing my brother’s ashes away. I never left the medicine out in anticipation of my brother overdosing, and I never celebrated my brother’s death, but his passing took the burden of his existence off of my family and ended up changing all of our lives for the better. I didn’t see the point in keeping my brother’s ashes if nobody in my family wanted to keep the ashes or cared where his ashes went. The burden of caring for my brother would have been put on my parents when it came time for me to move out, and there would have been nobody to support him if my parents were to pass away before he did.

I think that my brother’s death was for the best, for both him and our family.

Sorry, this is long. My husband and I picked out names for our third child. We picked a name for both a girl and a boy because we are not finding out the gender until birth. His mom pressured us to share the names we were considering, which was weird because she hasn't been this pushy with our other kids. We caved and told her. For the girl name, she is trying to get us to change the middle name to honor a female close relative who recently passed. We were both absolutely fine with that, and the suggested name was similar to what we had chosen anyway. Here's the bad part: with the boy name, she wants us to change it to the name of a character in a movie that the relative liked. When we were hesitant, she bashed our chosen name in a brutal way. She said that the boy name sounds like a "weak nerd' and she compared the middle name to the name of a man who abused my husband as a child (The last syllable of the middle name is the same as his abusers nickname). My husband went silent and stared into the distance, and I told her that the name she had suggested literally had the exact same last syllable as the one we had chosen, so it sounded just as much like the abusers nickname. She said "Well, I think it's less noticable", and I countered with the fact that the name she suggested was literally only one letter away from the abusers nickname, while our chosen name has four other letters. She told us to just think about it. I can't even talk to my husband about it without him getting that blank stare, but he has said he doesn't want to change our chosen boy name. But I'm scared he will now have to deal with his mom forever reminding him of his trauma. So, I don't know what to do. Part of me wants us to find completely new names and tell no one, while another part doesn't want to let MIL take the joy away from us that the names used to bring.

TLDR: Told MIL potential baby names. MIL compared boy baby name to my husband's childhood abusers nickname, pushed a name even more similar. Husband is traumatized, but doesn't want to change our chosen name. I don't know what to do.

His content revolves around tearing other people down and showing the bad side of people and humanity. At it's core, his content is basically, analyzing the bad in people and seeing what's wrong with them and showcasing their flaws. For example, in one of his recent videos, he talks about an Arby's manager and how she's a shitty person for doing something completely shitty to one of the customers. Videos like this seem to be very common on his channel; he's basically making content that's saying "hey look at this shitty person, and seeing how shitty of a human they are."

There's just something about the negativity that rubs me the wrong way.

I would rather watch content that shows the good in people and helps lift them up, not content that shows the bad in people and tears them down. Because sure, humanity sucks sometimes, but there's also a lot of good people out there. And when you're building people up, helping people out, there's just something about it that makes you feel good on the inside.

I think Penguin should make less videos on why people suck, and more videos on why people are good. I think he should make more videos on helping people out too rather than tearing them down. There's just something about it that helps the soul.

So, we have been officially dating for about 2 months now. well man honestly, as a man who has committed to this relationship, I did so because she (this woman as a whole) truly captivated my heart, both her mindset and her physical appearance attracted me

she is indeed a highly capable and intelligent woman in her university life. She is part of a major student organization (the Student Executive Board) and excels academically in her studies, her major is even considered 'difficult' to get into

as our connection grew more intense, she made a confession to me regarding something very heavy, because we agreed to have "transparency" in our relationship. and yeah, she opened up and told me that when she was around 5 years old, she was abused by her own biological father, who inappropriately touched her

moreover, from the age of 17 onwards, she engaged in taking baths together with her biological father. for me honestly, well i was spontaneously shocked hearing this and asked her so many questions

when i found out the extent of it (that she kissed her father on the lips), well i spontaneously asked her "do you see him as a man?' and she answered "yes". honestly.... i felt like i was competing with him, and then i realized that she has been subjected to severe authority manipulation and grooming by her biological father

when i asked her who she loves the most while being in a relationship with me, she answered, 'my father.' And then... she suddenly defended herself by saying, "at least I didn't do it with another guy". for me personally, my heart broke hearing that statement. it is blatantly clear that there is a severe cognitive distortion happening with my girl right now... i feel so sad about it.... honestly... i... cry... to hear that statement.. yeah..

should I walk away, just ghost her or etc, and then yeah she said she will kill me if i leave.. (she indeed dead serious about it) ?

I (48M) have a daughter (17F) and wife (47F). I also have a sister (45F). My sister was quite close to us and has gained considerable wealth through her career in medicine as well as through businesses she has started. When my daughter was 9, my sister told my wife and me that she had started college funds for my daughter as well as the rest of my brothers kids. My wife and I were very grateful.

Time skip until now, my daughter and wife (as well as my brothers and their families) discovered that my sister was cheating with a coworker. The betrayed wife ended up reaching out and telling us exactly what she did and how her husband was planning to leave her for my sister. My sister did not and does not want to get married or have kids, and basically ended up kicking him to the curb.

I want to make it clear that I 100% do not condone infidelity. My wife and daughter have been taken aback by this, and made their anger clearly visible. When my brother ended up inviting my brothers and their families as well as mine and my sister for a holiday, they cursed my sister out to their face, with my wife calling her a wh@re and my daughter calling her a "homewrecking slut". My brother ended up hearing this and kicked my family out, and have chosen to not invite my wife and daughter to any event. After this, my wife and daughter cut contact with my sister, while I still stayed in contact.

My sister was very hurt by my wife and daughters actions. In her view, she was a very engaged aunt and a supportive SIL (which to her credit, she was), and she felt as though they were choosing a stranger over her. After six months, my sister had received no apology or even contact from my wife and daughter. She then called me and told me we needed to discuss something. She stated that my wife and daughter had made their decisions about her, and she would do the same; she would not be disrespected, and was choosing to split my daughters college fund evenly amongst my brothers kids. I did not protest this decision, and while I didn't agree with my sister, I did not try to change her mind.

After this, I went home and told my wife and daughter this news. My daughter is a rising senior, and now has to go through this admissions process. She and my wife were both shocked and viewed it as extremely unfair. They were already angry enough at the fact that my brothers wanted nothing to do with them, and thought that they were being punished by everyone for doing the right thing. My duaghter began to cry saying that she would never be able to afford to go to the college of her dreams. My wife asked what I said to my sister, and I said nothing. I stated that actions had consequences, and they were free to make their moral choices, and my sister could make her financial choices. They both called me an asshole and have been distant. Am I in the wrong?

(Don't give me relationship advice, I'm ending this relationship. I'm ranting here).

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I had made a post here yesterday about my boyfriend who doesn't want me to have an abortion because of his "pro-life" views and is trying so hard to stop me. I've decided I'm having the abortion which I've already sxhedules for next week becauae I'm not ready to be a mother.

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I also was told here by commenter that he very likely baby trapped, and lied about his infertility, so he could impregnate me. He did show me some result that saud 99.9 something percent of his sperm is infertile, maybe it's true, but that chance still happened after 2 years. I trusted him because he's a paraplegic, and I know his spinal cord injury does somehow affect his fertility, but I don't know how exactly.

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Well, my boyfriend just got even crazier yesterday because he's trying a lot of things to stop my abortion. He spammed on my Whatsapp messages a lot of videos of commentators like Charlie Kirk and "pro-life" organizations talking against abortions, "proof" that abortion is murder, and some videos of Chrisrian women with babies claiming abortion is somehow actually anti-woman. He really thought all of this propaganda was going to change my mind.

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I'm done with the constant gaslighting of my boyfriend, so I took away all of my boyfriend's viagra packages yesterday as well. If he wants to control my body, he shouldn't have access to viagra for his erections.

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He also invited his parents yesterday at the apartment we live in, so his parents could tell me weird stuff about how it's a "blessing" to be a mother and to be pregnant. They told me things about how I'm just "misguided" by "evil" people because I don't want to be a mother. And my boyfriend's mom did some weird thing bu touching my belly and giving me a cross which she told me to put on.

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And my boyfriend proposed me marriage in front of his parents, making a promise that he'll make any sacrifices to take care of the baby he wants. I obviously told him no, because I don't want to be a mother and I'm tired of him not respecting my choice. He then started crying while touching my legs and belly, and telling me that he loves this unborn fetus as much as me. And it was just a uncomfortable experience him ranting against my bodily autonomy in front of his parents who were consoling him. He told me he's actually not against my bodily autonomy and that I can leave him if I want, but I need to give birth and give him the child afterwards because in his belief, the fetus is not my body.

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I got tired of my boyfriend and his parents' bullshit that I just told them to f*ck off because they seem to care more about a clump of cells than about my wellbeing as a person.

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I still gave a chance for my boyfriend to respect my decision yesterday, I understand this might be his only chance to have a child naturally as a paraplegic, but I don't owe him a child. He just kept crying yesterday night because he believes "his child is getting killed", he even has already come up with a male and a female. It was so annoying, that I decided to sleep outside the room we always sleep in together. On top of that, he still had the energy to ask me for sex and whine that he can't find the viagra I took away, and called me an ableist. I just ignored him for the rest of the night.

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Since we live in the same apartment, I'm now packaging my things and moving away from him, I'll also stop paying my part of the rent. I gave him enough chances to respect my choice, but he's selfish, so I'm leaving, and my abortion is scheduled for the next 10 days.

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I feel like I was used by him to be his incubator. I'm afraid that id he brought his parents to guilt-trip me even more into not having the abortion, they could do anything to prevent me from going to the clinic because they believe I'm actually murdering a baby. I just hope my boyfriend takes no further actions.

I couldn’t help but notice that most of the recent posts here tend to be obviously fake to rack up some karma, stir the pot, and/or be creative writing exercises. It’s a little annoying when there are people here who actually want to confess to someone only to be lumped in with karma/engagement farmers.