This is America.

“X has become increasingly hateful, toxic and less and less moderated.”

This is key to me. I know it’s not because Elon has other instances of repeating Nazi, neo-Nazi, and fascist points, Twitter is such a terrible platform now that it is a no-brainer to ban it. There are other sources, let’s use them.

I replied to @SpaceFox@lemmy.ml, and you can find my reply here.

Here’s the things that actually helped me:

• Teachers/authority figures making me feel heard and valued. (From ECS to Highschool graduation, I had maybe 4 teachers who really went out of their way to help)
• Fellow students who stood up/spoke up for me (I had a group of boys corner me in the washroom and start berating me and until I broke down and started crying. A boy, who I didn’t even know his name, but was accqainted with came in and stood up to the group. I will never forget what he did.)
• Friends
• people going out of their way to make me feel welcome (when it happened I didn’t know why they were being so nice to me.)

Things I think would have helped:

• Knowing that it’s okay to need help
• someone telling me the things happening are not acceptable or normal

No idea what I was a part of, but it is special Ed adjacent.

I was forced into a program in Jr. High because I had behavior issues (of course nothing was done to the bullies and attackers, just the person retaliating). It was like a 3 week program where they analyzed you (poorly because I knew all their testing methods and was not cooperating), stuffed you in a corner, and told you do homework for the day and then an hour for phys-ed. I stopped doing the homework after a while and just started playing my GBA.

It was humiliating, but I will say, the kids removed from the their situations were actually really great people despite being labeled as trouble makers or problems.

Anyways, I changed schools, and then changed schools, then got expelled and changed schools again, and eventually I graduated highschool. I then attended university and completed two programs.

Now, over 20 years later, I am actively unpacking and working on these issues from school because I fell through the cracks and was actively punished for being a victim.

The Basement Brothers are a good channel. I enjoy the quality of their work and what they are aiming for with their videos.

I think I first became aware of the games on Japanese PCs when I discovered that Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake on the MSX2 was the actual Sequel to Metal Gear and not Metal Gear Snake’s Revenge. And that was when I played MGS 3: Subsistence.

I didn’t know Lagoon was a Y’s Clone and on the X68000 originally. It does explain a lot. As a child I recognized it had some odd design choices.

The other advice is solid, and I agree with it all as of this posting. I did want to focus on the money thing.

I think you should accept the money. Some people, particularly older generations, view money as sign of respect, and turning down is against their understanding of social protocol.

You could even use it to get her a nice gift (flowers, cards, gift basket, etc).